


Alls Well That Ends Well

by sapphicsinner



Category: Glee
Genre: 13 year old me thought this would be a good crackfic, Album: Lover (Taylor Swift), Angst, April Daily Prompts: Quarantined Quests, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Brief Brittana, Early Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Fighting, Finchel - Freeform, Gays In Quarantine, Glee Club - Freeform, Glee References, Homophobic Language, Hummelberry, I'm Bad At Tagging, Inspired by Taylor Swift, Kid Krow (Conan Gray), Klaine Angst, Kurtcedes - Freeform, M/M, Multi, Sick Character, Sing To Me Instead (Ben Platt), Song: Teenage Dream (Katy Perry), Summer of Klaine, and it became a 30k+ fic i wrote in a week, anyway enjoy, because 13 year old me was bored, but yall like it so im leaving it up, im very embarrassed by this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 38,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25681537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicsinner/pseuds/sapphicsinner
Summary: covid 19 hit new york hard, and with nowhere to go, two enemies find themselves stuck in an unbearable situationorin which Mercedes and Sam ship Klaine so hard that they'll do anything to get them together
Relationships: Adam Crawford/Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson/Sam Evans, Kurt Hummel & Mercedes Jones, Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang, Rachel Berry/Finn Hudson, Sam Evans/Mercedes Jones, Santana Lopez/Brittany S. Pierce
Comments: 30
Kudos: 77





	1. CONTENTS:

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cornelia Street](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23267632) by [BlurglesmurfKlaine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlurglesmurfKlaine/pseuds/BlurglesmurfKlaine). 



𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑳𝒊𝒔𝒕:

✯𝑰 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑬𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅

✯𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒏

✯𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑵𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒎 𝑫𝒐𝒘𝒏

✯𝑺𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓

✯𝑰𝒕𝒔 𝑵𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝑻𝒐 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑨 𝑭𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅

✯𝑪𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓

✯𝑴𝑬!

✯𝑰 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝑯𝒆 𝑲𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒔

✯𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒂 & 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆

✯𝑭𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅

✯𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝑩𝒐𝒚

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝑩𝒚 𝑨 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒖𝒕𝒔

𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒂 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒕

𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒘

𝑫𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕

𝑷𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔

𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓


	2. I Forgot That You Existed

_"Hello, students of the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts. As you may already be aware, an international pandemic has known as Covid-19, or Coronavirus, has broken out across the world. The virus is sweeping through the nation, and as it seems, New York is one of the largest impacted hotspots in the nation. After the board's careful consideration, NYADA directors have decided to enforce the country's impending Shelter-In-Place order, effective immediately. Classes will resume in two weeks online, giving professors the proper time to prepare and distribute work. All students living in dorm halls must evacuate, and pack all of their belongings to take with them. No exceptions will be made, as the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff is most important now. Information for our graduating class will be provided soon._

_Stay safe, we'll get back to you soon._

_-NYADA Board of Directors' Office"_

Kurt groaned and slammed his computer shut in frustration. He had received the email three days ago and had read it over and over again. As soon as he read it the first time, he searched for a plane ticket back to Lima. He resided in the dorms, and according to the letter, he wouldn't be for very much longer.

In his search, he discovered that ticket prices has raised through the roof, and he had no money. He was a college student after all. His father called him later, and he reluctantly had to explain why he wouldn't be able to make it down to Ohio. Burt understood, but made his son promise to call him at least once a week. And that was the end of that.

But it left Kurt with one more problem: He still had to get out of his dorm.

The day after the email was sent, each boarding student was sent 3 boxes to put their belongings in. Usually, it would be more than enough to use, but Kurt was living in a single room. Without a roommate, the boy figured, he had more space and freedom to make the room truly his. No matter what anyone thought of him, he had to be himself . Truly authentic- and his room had to showcase that. Small, fashionable decor slowly turned into an entire shrine of anything he could find on a bargain. Santana loved to joke that he needed to book an episode of Hoarders, and he started to believe that she was right- not that he'd ever admit it.

Which is how Kurt ended up sitting cross-legged on his floor, across from his best friend, Mercedes, at three in the morning. They had been stuck in his room all day, folding clothes and sorting knick knacks into boxes. Well, Mercedes was putting things away while Kurt babbled on about how much he wished he didn't have to move, especially since it meant he'd have to stay in a cheap motel for god knows how long.

"Why don't you just stay in me and Sam's apartment?" she suggested flatly, drained from a long day of doing her friend's work for him.

At this, Kurt's eyes glanced up at her from his spot. He tilted his head a bit, a few strands of hair falling over his eyes. He searched for any signs of a joke on his friend's face before saying, "Wait, really? Would you seriously let me stay there?" in an unsure voice.

"Of course! I already told you, me and Sam-"

"Sam and I" Kurt interjected.

Mercedes just ignored him and continued on. "-Are flying out to Ohio tomorrow, and it's gonna be free of space anyway. Besides, I love you, and I'd hate for you to catch something in one of those musty ass motels you were looking at."

Kurt stares her down for a while, before his face broke into a huge grin. He jumped up to throw his arms around Mercedes, laughing in disbelief. "Holy shit, I love you so much! Thank you, thank you thank you!"

Thirty minutes later, the two had just finished up and Mercedes was getting ready to head out the door. Kurt gave his friend one last hug, mumbling his thanks once more into her ear. As he pulled away, though, he noticed a strange look on her face. "You okay, love?" Kurt asked, feeling that there was something she wasn't telling him.

"Well there's someone... no never mind, it's all good, Kurt. I'm gonna leave the door unlocked for you tomorrow, come over any time you want, and I'll leave your set of keys on the counter." Mercedes mumbled out the first three words so low that Kurt didn't hear them. He still looked at her with slight suspicion, but he brushed it off and nodded his head slowly.

"Okay, I got it" he said, refraining from asking what was really up.

"You still remember the address, right? You haven't come over in a while. It's-" Kurt cute her off with a smile.

"Corner of 16th and Cornelia Street."

¤¤¤¤¤

Kurt, naturally, oversleeps the next morning, waking up just after noon. He mentally kicks himself for it, and for not being awake to call Mercedes before she and Sam left for Lima. He looks up and blinks, eyes adjusting to the sudden fixture of light while still in bed. He groggily stands up, looking down a chuckling when he sees that he's still in his clothes from the night before. Damn, he thinks, I must have been tired as hell.

The bare, white walls of his dorm room shock him back to reality and suddenly he's fully aware of the three boxes sitting next to his bed, and the 2 duffel bags full of even more clothes on top of the boxes. Kurt curses and runs a hand through his tangled hair, debating himself on whether he should get ready to leave now or just go back to sleep.

The boy huffed and stood up straight, walking over to his door to slip on his shoes. He decided to just shower and change once he got to Mercedes' place- he had to admit, communal showers made him sick. Grabbing his car key, he shoved them in his pocket before going to grab a box. It'd take him a few trips up and down the stairs, but the sooner the better right?

¤¤¤¤¤

_Shit, what apartment number was it again?_

Kurt stood in an elevator headed to the 2nd floor of his friend's apartment building. He had one of his duffel bags slung over his shoulder and carried the other one in his left hand, his phone held in his right.

_Oh, 206, that's right._

The elevator came to a halt and Kurt stepped out and into the long hallway. He only walked for a short while, counting the apartment numbers in his head. _201, 202, 203, 204, 205, ah here we are, 206._ Remembering that Mercedes said that she'd leave it unlocked, he immediately reached for the handle.

Kurt's face went white and his hand stopped midway, though, when a loud noise came from inside the apartment. It sounded like a voice, a man yelling maybe. Slowly, with shaking hands, he pushed open the door and stepped into the apartment. Quietly shutting the door behind him, he walked into the living room and dropped his bags on the ground next to the couch. He stood in place for a few moments, standing completely still and silent.

Kurt lightly shook his head, deciding that whatever noise he thought he heard came from a different apartment. But he was still on edge, as he was always slightly paranoid in situations like this one, so he slowly walked over to the kitchen to make himself tea. Mercedes always kept a special blend for him since she knew it helped keep him calm and relaxed.

Who needs alcohol when you have supportive best friends?

Kurt barely had a chance to grab a mug out of one of the cabinets before the voice came again, seemingly out of nowhere. Only this time, it was clear as day, and sounded as if it was right behind him.

"I'm sorry, who the fuck are you?"

 _Oh god, no._ Kurt immediately froze upon hearing the voice, instantly recognizing it. He sucked in a breath, not daring to exhale, and tried to will himself to turn around and face the man behind him, but his body wouldn't cooperate and he was frozen in place. _Of all people, of course it's him._

"Maybe you didn't hear me the first time. I said, why the fuck are you in my apartment?"

And with that, Kurt's natural instinct kicked in. For years, he had met everything he said to him with a witty comeback, so these words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them, "Actually, _Blaine_ ," he spun around on his heel and leaned back against the counter, "You said 'who the fuck are you'. If you're gonna be a complete, insufferable ass, at least be smart about it."

"Wait, Kurt? I don't-"

"And this isn't even your apartment, you know that. Plus, Mercedes is letting me stay here for the whole quarantine thing, so would you mind telling me why the hell you're here?" Kurt snapped. He was supposed to be alone, all he wanted to do was go back to sleep.

"Geez, someone's got a temper" Blaine said coolly, visibly relaxing and leaning against a wall, shoving his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, crossing one leg over the other. Suddenly, looking at Blaine in just gray sweats and a white t-shirt made Kurt feel slightly overdressed, as he was still in yesterday's clothes; clad in dark blue jeans and a long sleeve white tee under a black vest, adorned with a red handkerchief. Blaine continued, "Wait, what do you mean Mercedes let you stay here? Sam told me that I could crash here a few days ago. It was supposed to be empty."

Kurt crossed his arms over his chest and squinted his eyes at the man in front of him, his face a mix of confusion and suspicion. "She told me last night..." He let his words trail off as the gears in his head stopped turning and the lightbulb in his mind flashed burning white. Oh, that conniving little bitch. He thinks of any different options, anything besides staying here. Well I'm pretty much a broke college student with nowhere else to go.

"Then just...stay here?" Blaine says, cutting into his internal dialogue. Wait, did he say that out loud?

"Why the hell would I do that, Anderson? There's only one bed and don't you dare hit me with the 'we used to be friends' line because you know who's fault that is and exactly why it didn't work out" Kurt huffed out, clearly exasperated.

Blaine rolled his eyes in annoyance, saying "Well we were close once. You can't act like this forever."

"God, you really don't know when to shut up, do you?" Kurt asked, brushing past Blaine to walk back into the living room. "And you wonder why I hate you so much."

"Well you obviously don't hate me that much," Kurt stopped in his tracks, taking in Blaine's words. "You'd have been out the door already if you really did, Kurt, so just admit it. You don't hate me."

Kurt quickly gained his composure, turned back to face the boy and scoffed, saying "In your dreams, Anderson-"

He was cut off by Blaine speaking as he sauntered over to where he stood. "In my dreams, Kurt, or in yours? I mean, aren't you the one who made it his mission to pick a fight with me every time we see each other? You must actually care about me a lot if you care that much about something so dumb and trivial, because somehow, it's always on your mind." As he finished, he and Kurt only stood inches from each other. Blaine smirked, already knowing who was winning this fight.

"You really think I care about you that much, Blaine? I rarely even remember that you exist half of the time" Kurt retorted defensively, voice getting higher.

Blaine nodded slowly before putting on the most annoyingly condescending voice he could manage. "Uh huh, sure thing, bud. If you say so."

Staring down the man in front of him, Kurt groaned in frustration and pushed past Blaine to go lock himself in the bathroom. "I can't take this shit."

"Love you, too!" Blaine called out.

"Fuck you, Anderson."


	3. The Man

"Ah, there he is! I was starting to think that you died or something" Blaine laughed out as Kurt emerged from the bathroom two and a half hours later.

"Can it, Anderson, I'm not in the mood for your bullshit right now. Go be intolerable somewhere else, please and thank you" he stated dryly, looking utterly drained and exhausted. He had just gotten out of the shower, so his hair was dripping wet down his neck and being soaked up by the plain black tshirt he changed into. 

Blaine just ignored him and sat on a stool in front of the kitchen counter. "So are you staying here for what?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Why does it have to be me making the decision? Aren't you like... rich? Just fly back to Lima, you can afford it. Or did Daddy's money run out already?"

For a moment, Kurt could have sworn that he saw a flash of.... something on Blaine's face. A mix of hurt, despair, and defeat. But it was gone just as soon as it appeared, and Blaine just said "Just answer the damn question, jesus."

Kurt felt a small twinge in his chest, but didn't know why. He brushed it off, assuming it was nothing. 

"Yes, I'm staying. I called Mercedes and she said she- nevermind. But yeah, I have nowhere else to stay, so I'm here." Kurt cut himself off before finishing his sentence about what Mercedes had told him. He felt that it was unnecessary, Blaine didn't need to know anyway.

Blaine, however, wanted to know what it was about. Secrecy peaked his curiosity, and pestering Kurt was his only source of entertainment at the moment. "Wait, no, no, no. Back it up real quick, what did she say" he asked, with a huge, childish grin plastered onto his face.

Not having the energy to hear Blaine's mouth, he ignored his question and asked "Who's sleeping where? There's only one bed."

"Well uh..." Blaine started, bringing a hand up to mess with a curly strand of hair, "I haven't really thought that far. But I was here first, I should get the bed, you take the couch." He spoke and watched as Kurt walked over the refrigerator, taking a look inside before shutting it to look at Blaine.

"Dude, you got here like an hour before I did. And besides, Blaine, that couch is small as hell."

"Okay, and?" Blaine responded, slightly confused. 

"I'm too big for it, and you're way shorter than me. You're basically a fucking hobbit. I could probably step-"

"Oh my god, shut up," Blaine said, letting his head fall into his hands on the counter. "I'm small, I can take it, Kurt."

At that, Kurt raised his eyebrows at the boy in front of him. About a million sex jokes popped into his head and he had to keep himself from laughing. A moment of silence passed in the kitchen before Blaine lifted his head from it's resting place, squinting at Kurt in confusion. 

"What?" he asked, and suddenly it clicked. "Oh my fucking god, Kurt, grow up. And I still want to know what Mercedes said."

Kurt rolled his eyes for what seemed like the 600th time that day. "Why do you even care?"

"Because we're gonna be living together for god knows how long. If you haven't noticed, there's not much privacy here anyway, so there's no use in not telling me." Blaine just shrugged before adding, "There's also no use in hating me, but I digress."

With a moment of hesitation, Kurt sighed. "Fine, god. She said that she and Sam knew that we would both be here. Apparently they did it on purpose, they 'don't want their best friends to hate each other'or something, its stupid.

Blaine was quiet for a bit, taking everything in. All he let out was a soft "I don't hate you, though."

"Tell that to junior year at McKinley" Kurt scoffed.

Blaine sat stunned, a bit taken aback by the accusation. "Is that really what this is all about, Kurt? Something that happened over 4 years ago? You cannot be that petty-"

"Oh, says you," Kurt snaps, walking over to the counter where Blaine sat. "You know exactly what you did and I'm not gonna let you sit here and blame all of this shit on me." He spoke harshly and quickly, and to anyone else it might have been a bit intimidating, but Blaine stood his ground. 

"You say that like it's my fault or something-"

"Because it is! It is literally your fault, Blaine, you can't be that goddamn stupid." At this point, Kurt was practically yelling at the man in front of him, which, if you ask his friends, was actually a regular occurrence. "Why do you think we don't talk anymore, huh? You think I just woke up one day and decided to ditch you?"

Blaine stood up from where he was seated. "Well it's not like I'd have known any better." 

"You were my best friend, Blaine. For years. How do you think I took it when I had to hear, from Rachel of all people, about all of the shit people were saying about me because of you? We couldn't even do the 'straight guy friends with the gay guy' thing without you fucking it up and making me seem like some kind of predator."

"I wasn't even the one who started that-"

"Yeah but you never once tried to fucking deny it!"

Blaine took a step back away from Kurt, his words hitting him hard.

They both stood in silence, staring at each other. Kurt decided to speak up first, his voice thick with something Blaine could only recognize as pure, seething anger.

"The worst part is that you just sat there and watched it happen. When everyone was accusing me of throwing myself at you, when Karofsky and his goons assaulted me in the middle of the goddamn hallway, you just watched. And the names," he let out a shrill laugh, bellowing and throwing his head back, "they were just the icing on the cake. Fairy, Unicorn, Gaylord, those were all too childish to be mad at. But the one thag stuck most was lady-boy."

At the mention of that word, Blaine's eyes widened and a wave of guilt washed over him. 

"It always meant that no one saw me as who I was, but as who they thought I was when they looked at me. Probably the most invalidating thing ever. I would have takem it from Azimio, or even Karofsky, but I never thought I'd hear it from you."

Blaine opened his mouth to speak, to defend himself, to protest, but nothing came out. 

Kurt just continued on, seeming to be in his own little world now. "And then I realized that if someone actually saw me as a man like they saw you, I'd get an ounce of respect."

Blaine suddenly found the words he wanted to say, though they came out far too harsh, "Don't hit me with any of your feminist bullshit, Kurt, that's not gonna work."

Kurt threw his hands up, offended. "Oh, so because I want to be treated like a real person makes it 'feminist bullshit'? That's the problem right there! Even in high school, it was the exact same thing. And them you just got so cocky about it. All high and mighty and I got tired of it. I got tired of running as fast as I could, from everyone coming at me again and again."

He didn't want to argue anymore, he didn't have it in him. Kurt was tired, all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. Without hesitation, he walked away from Blaine and towards the bedroom.

"Where the hell are you going?" He heard Blaine's voice behind him and his footsteps following him, falling against the hardwood floor.

"Where does it look like I'm going, Anderson?" he responded, not bothering to turn around.

"Well, I mean, yeah, but why?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused. Kurt let out a small laugh at that and stopped when he reached the bedroom door. 

"Look, I'm tired, Blaine. I don't feel like arguing with you right now, so I'm gonna go to sleep, if that's okay with Your Royal Highness" he said sarcastically, gesturing to Blaine, and with each word a bit of anger was released. 

"Okay... fine."

Kurt then stepped into the bedroom and shut the door behind him. Was every day really going to be like this?


	4. You Need To Calm Down

Three weeks passed and not much had changed. The tension in the air was still thick, but at least tolerable. 

After Kurt practically forced Blaine to help him carry his boxes from the car, he got himself situated in the apartment. A few nights pass with him in the bedroom and Blaine out on the couch before he starts to feel bad, reluctantly suggesting that he and Blaine switch off every few days instead. They cooked for each other- well, Blaine cooked, Kurt obsessively baked- or ordered takeout to share. They went grocery shopping once a week, but never together, a silent agreement that seeing each other at home everyday was enough. 

Other than that, things were the same between the two. Blaine made his usual crude comments and snide remarks while Kurt starred daggers at him, always seeming to be on the verge of cutting his head straight off. Blaine stayed on the phone until the most ungodly hours of the night, which Kurt assumed was just him talking to yet another girlfriend. He was messy and left his dirty laundry all over the living room, dealing with Kurt continuously calling him a slob by laughing and brushing it off, putting all of his attention into whatever video game he was playing on Sam's PlayStation. He was such a boy, but Kurt had grown used to it. His experience living with Finn helped him adjust easier.

On some days, Kurt might have said that Blaine was somewhat tolerable. But on most days, they couldn't even hold a conversation without it ending in pointless bickering. 

Today, Blaine decided to wake up a bit earlier and make breakfast. Kurt was still asleep in his room, so he might as well cook for the both of them, it'd be rude if he didn't. Not that he'd ever admit it, but he felt bad about the entire situation, so it was the least he could do.

He knew that Kurt usually liked crêpes, or whatever that fancy bullshit was called, but he also knew that he wouldn't be able to make it without it being completely ruined. So he decided on pancakes, figuring that it would be the easiest. 

¤¤¤¤¤

About an hour and a half later, Blaine sat on the couch scrolling through episodes of The Office on Netflix. Right before he could find a decent episode to watch, he heard the bedroom door swing open and soft footsteps pad down the hall. 

Kurt walked straight past Blaine, not seeing him as his eyes were barely open. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, his back to Blaine, and raised his arms high over his head to stretch. Blaine's eyes trailed over the spot where his shirt had ridden up over his waist before immediately shifting them away. He laughed silently watching Kurt stand there before announcing his presence with "You just gonna stand there or are you gonna eat the pancakes I graciously slaved over a hot stove for you for?" 

Kurt jumped, not knowing anyone else was in the room with him. "Jesus fucking christ, Blaine," he said, startled voice raspy and laced with remnants of his prior sleep state. "Next time you do that, I'm permanently attaching a collar with a bell on it to your neck."

"Kinky." Blaine deadpanned, amused. 

Kurt just sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's far too early to deal with your bullshit, Anderson."

The curly haired boy just took this as another opportunity to push Kurt's buttons, he needed some source of entertainment. "It's like 10 am, it's not e-"

"You wake up at noon every day, Blaine, you should have nothing to say right now." He spoke smoothly and sharply, yet somehow already irritated despite being awake for just 8 and a half minutes.

"Geez," Blaine let out, crossing his arms over his chest like a pouting child, "someone's cranky, maybe you should go back to sleep."

It wasn't until Kurt brought a hand up to his messy hair that Blaine took in the way he looked at the moment. The man stood in front of him in a white tee that stretched across his chest just a bit too tightly, a pair of gray pajama pants that hung loosely below his hips, and his disheveled hair stuck out in every direction, in a way that only Kurt could make work. 

He looked....different, but Blaine couldn't quite place it. 

"I want to, trust me, I do," Kurt started, grabbing Blaine's attention again, "I just have all of this shit to do around the apartment that you refuse to help me with, and I'm not just gonna leave someone else's ap-" He was cut off by the sound of Kay Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' blaring from the bedroom. 

He groaned loudly, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. "Who the fuck is calling me this early?" Without another word, Kurt walked out of the kitchen and back to the bedroom, slamming the door shut, making Blaine jump.

Blaine stood alone in the kitchen, slightly confused about whatever the hell just happened, and as to why Kurt picked that song to be his ringtone. 

¤¤¤¤¤

Blaine glanced af his watch for the third time. 2:16pm. 

Over four hours ago, Kurt locked himself in his room, and Blaine hadn't seen or heard anything from him since. It was completely silent and the apartment felt empty with Kurt's nagging presence that Blaine had grown used to.

At some point in between those four hours, Blaine got bored and decided to complete a few household chores that he assumed Kurt was talking about earlier. He put all of his dirty laundry in the washing machine, washed the dishes, and took the trash out to the dumpster downstairs. He decides to leave the plate of pancakes out incase Kurt wants them when he finally comes out of his room. Being productive felt great, he finally understood why Kurt was at it so much. It felt like a weight had lifted off of his shoulders.

Blaine let another twenty minutes pass, tentatively glancing at his watch, before hopping up from his seat on yhe couch and deciding to go check on Kurt. After a small debate with himself, remembering the time Kurt snapped at him for entering his room when he was trying to sleep, he decided to check on him anyway. Sure, he didn't like the boy most of the time, and Kurt hated him even more, but that didn't mean that he didn't care about his wellbeing. Like he said, they used to be friends once.

Blaine walked down the hall to the bedroom door and knocked loudly, yelling, "Hummel, I'm coming in! If you're not decent, that's on you!" He pushed the door open so hard that it swung back against the wall, trying to make a show out of his entrance. 

To his surprise, Kurt was lying on the bed, buried under a mound of blankets. They were piled on so thick that Blaine didn't even recognize it as a person at first glance. He heard Kurt groan and could only imagine him rolling his eyes under the mountain of sheets. 

"Well, hello to you, too" he said, walking over to the bed and plopping down at the edge of it. 

He heard a faint "go away" and smiled, choosing to ignore it.

"You disappeared without eating, did you not appreciate the amazing pancakes I made you?" Blaine put a hand over his heart in mock disappointed. When he didn't get a response from Kurt, he continued. "Oh, and I finished all of the cleaning stuff you were gonna do before you came in here to drown in the likeliness of coke white sheets." Blaine laughed a bit, and Kurt shifted under the covers.

"By the way, Katy Perry? Amazing ringtone choice, I'll have to admit. But 'I Kissed a Girl'? That's like... the exact opposite of what you're into. Are they supposed to cancel each other out or something-"

He was cut off by Kurt suddenly appearing from his cocoon of sheets, eyes bloodshot and skin pale.

Wait, was he...

"Oh my god, can you shut the fuck up for once? You never seem to understand that I don't want you around me." He spoke fast and shrill, choking on a few words as if he was struggling to get the words out. "I don't even understand why you're still staying here, you can obviously afford to get the hell back to Lima, I'm sure your dad-"

"First of all, Kurt, you need to calm the fuck down. I don't know what the hell is wrong with you, but all I did was walk in here." Blaine stood up and took a step back defensively. "You have every right to be mad, but this is a shitty situation for me too, okay? The goddamn world doesn't revolve around you, Kurt." He watched as Kurt's face fell flat into an unreadable expression, his body shrunk back into the bed, making him seem smaller and fragile. Blaine wanted to stop, but he couldn't. If he was going to have to stay here, he would have to stop holding back. 

"Since we got here, all you've done is take shots at me like I did something to you, and I'm fucking sick of it, man. It's childish and petty, and I get that I fucked up 4 years ago, but this shit is getting old quick. So I'm done dealing with it." His words were harsh, maybe even harsher than he intended, and he knew that he should have taken the blame for some of it. But he also saw the truth in it. 

Blaine turned on his heel to walk out of the bedroom, the only sound in the room being his own feet against the hardwood flooring. He only got about seven steps away, however, before he halted his movements, hearing Kurt burst into tears behind him.


	5. Soon You'll Get Better

Blaine was frozen, stuck in place, as if the universe had stopped the hands of time to give him a moment to decide his next move. On one hand, he was incredibly pissed off and wanted to sulk and stuff his face with whatever food he could find- his favorite coping mechanism. But on the other, slightly larger hand, Kurt was sat alone on the bed only a couple yards behind him, crying his eyes out for an unknown reason.

_Kurt._

In reality, only a few seconds passed, but to Blaine it felt like an eternity as be spun back around and took quick strides over to where the boy was sat on the bed, head in hands, body shaking with the force of his sobs.

"Kurt?" Blaine tried hesitantly, not sure what he should do. This just seemed to make Kurt cry even harder, and suddenly Blaine's comforting instinct kicked in. He sat down on the bed next to Kurt and slowly wrapped an arm around his thin frame. He waited for a response, waited for Kurt to push him away or scream at him to get out, but when none came, he pulled him closer until his head was resting on Blaine's chest.

The only sound that could be heard in the entire apartment was Kurt's soft cries as he began to quiet down. His eyelids fluttered shut as he heard Blaine quietly humming above him, a song that sounded all too familiar to him. He searched his brain for the title, the word being on the tip of his tongue. But no matter how much he tried, his mind was not cooperative; he was still so tired. He then gave up, letting the sleepiness wash over him and clear his mind.

About 10 minutes later, Blaine still sat in bed, rocking slowly and holding Kurt close to him. He let his mind drift to randomness while Kurt was crying and only just realized that it was completely silent in the room besides the sound of Kurt's soft snores. Blaine glanced down at the boy and smiled to himself, acknowledging how peaceful he looked when he slept. His features had softened and his cheeks were rosy- partially from the crying- which Blaine found endearing. _He'd be cute if he wasn't so bitchy all the time_ , Blaine thought mindlessly.

Wait, what?

He realized he was staring and pulled his eyes away. Blaine didn't care about the fact that he was doing it, really, but more so the fact the Kurt would be pissed when he woke up. Sighing, he took a lingering glance down at the boy once more, savoring the fact that it would be the last time Kurt was this peaceful for a while. He hadn't even told Blaine why he'd been crying, surely he wouldn't now.

Blaine slowly moved Kurt's head off of his chest and onto the nearest pillow, then sat for a moment to make sure he was still asleep. He rolled of the opposite side of the bed, making sure his movements were gentle enough to not wake Kurt. Turning back one last time, he exits the room, softly shutting the door behind himself.

¤¤¤¤¤

Blaine had been sitting on the living room floor for about thirty minutes, lost in deep thought. He stared into space mindlessly, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Everything in his mind was a mess, even more so than usual.

A loud buzz startled him out of his head, and he then realized that it was just his phone. Blaine jumped up and walked back to the kitchen counter to retrieve it, where he left it when he made breakfast that morning. He grabbed it and turned it on, eyes wide after seeing that he had seven unopened texts and three missed calls, all from Sam.

 **Sam:**  
blaineee

 **Sam:**  
i gotta question

 **Sam:**  
dude its important cmon

 **Sam:**  
oh wait

 **Sam:**  
let me guess, ur with kurt?

 **Sam:**  
blainey has a boyfriiendddd

 **Sam:**  
wait ew no dont do it in our bed thats gross

Blaine rolled his eyes before typing out his response

 **Blaine:**  
what the hell do you want

 **Sam:**  
hes alive!

 **Blaine:**  
i will block you

 **Sam:**  
what no dont do that

 **Blaine:**  
then what do you want

 **Sam:**  
can a guy not want to talk to his best friend?

**Blaine:**

well if the guy keeps accusing his best friend  
of having sex on his bed, then no

 **Sam:**  
fine ill stop

 **Sam:**  
but how are things with him anyway?

 **Blaine:**  
he still hates me if thats what youre asking

 **Blaine:**  
and tell mercedes that i blame the two of  
you if he ends up cutting my head off

 **Sam:**  
geez is it that bad

 **Sam:**  
mercedes says to tell you to get  
over it btw

 **Blaine:**  
its not...horrible really. today was weird tho

 **Sam:**  
ooh really? what happened?

 **Blaine:**  
if you have physical proof of this, i know  
youll blackmail me, so i'm gonna call you

Blaine pressed the call button next to Sam's contact and waited while the phone rang twice before Sam picked up. He hears a bit of shuffling on the other side of the phone and wonders what's going on. "Sam?"

"Greetings and salutations" Sam says, showing up.

"Is that from Heathers?" Blaine smiles at the reference to his favorite movie.

"Obviously." Blaine feels more relaxed talking to Sam. Since everything went down in junior year, Sam had supported him unconditionally.

"Okay so, I wanted to call you so there was no proof of this conversation," he starts, then realizes that the statement could be taken out of context. "Not that there's anything bad, I just… yeah anyway." Sam laughed a bit, and Blaine just ignored him and continued.

"Kurt and I got into yet another argument today. I like- I walked in his room and was being annoying cause I hadn't seen him all day and he looked like…" he trails off a bit, trying to find the words. "He just looked like he'd been crying and just blew up at me. I didn't know what to do so I just started yelling back at him and he just… started crying."

Sam sucks in a breath of surprise. "Oh shit, really?"

"Yeah, and I mean like, full body sobbing. And I never even found out why before he-" Blaine cut himself off before he could say too much. He didn't even know why he was embarrassed.

"He what?" Sam asks, curious. Blaine huffs, knowing where this conversation is headed.

"Well he kinda- I don't know, since he was crying I kinda held him until he fell asleep." He mumbled, wishing that the words came out as smooth as he intended.

Blaine heard multiple voices on the other end, and then Sam spoke up, sounding muffled and a bit far away. "I bet you 20 dollars that he stared at him while he slept."

Blaine's eyes widen at the accusation, remembering that that's exactly what he did. He then realized that Sam wasn't addressing the statement towards him. "Wait, Sam, who else are you talking to?" he stutters out, feeling his face heat up with every passing second.

"Hi, Blainey!" Wait, Tina?

"I thought you were with Mercedes? Wait, am I on speakerphone right now?"

"Me, Mercedes, Tina, and Mike are all quarantined together. And you may or may not be on speaker right now, that information is undisclosed."

Blaine's voice became high and shrill, sounding whiny. "Sam! I told you that this was private!"

"What was private?" came a voice from behind him.

Blaine jumped and rushed to press the end call button. He turned around to face Kurt, who stood with a confused look on his face and an eyebrow raised. "Oh, nothing, nothing" he rushed out, trying to read the expression on Kurt's face.

Kurt just nodded slowly, not pushing the subject. He took one look at the flush on Blaine's face and could tell that something was up, but decided that it probably didn't involve him. "Okay...and uh, sorry about earlier." he says, gesturing down the hall, toward the bedroom.

Blaine looks confused for a bit, then it clicks. "No, no, no, really it's okay. I mean, it happens, it's cool. If anything, I should be apologizing, you probably didn't want me t-"

"It's my dad." Kurt says quietly, cutting Blaine off, and the room feels like it dropped 30 degrees from his words alone. When Blaine didn't say anything in response, he continued. "He's um… he's sick. That phone call I got earlier, it was Finn. He told me." He walked over to sit at the counter next to Blaine.

"Wait, does he have-"

"They don't know yet. But there's always a chance and he already had cancer and his heart is so bad" Kurt rambles, slowly losing his composure again.

Blaine put a hand on his shoulder and nodded sympathetically. "Hey, he's gonna be okay. He'll get better soon, he always does." Kurt looks up at him with glassy eyes, still red from all the crying he did earlier.

"I used to have this idea in my head of growing up and taking care of him when he got too old to do it himself. It all seems so useless now, I feel delusional for even thinking it." Kurt replies sadly, and it makes Blaine's heart break a little at his tone.

"You're not delusional, Kurt, you're hopeful. That's a good thing." Blaine says, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Kurt just smiles, looking defeated. "I know delusion when I see it, Blaine, and I see it every day. Every time I look in the mirror, I see this crazy person. I even started praying, isn't that crazy? An atheist asking for some higher being's advice."

Blaine tilted his head a bit, then shrugged it off. "Desperate people find faith, there's not anything really bad about that. Look," he said, getting an idea, "I hate to make this about me, but I kinda know what it's like to lose a parent. Both, technically."

Kurt's eyes widened, this was the first time he was ever hearing this. "What… did something happen with your parents?"

"What- Oh! I thought you knew already. Yeah, they kinda cut me off when I came out senior year. They still pay my NYADA tuition and food and all of that, but everything else is on me. I haven't even talked to them since graduation."

A rush of guilt flooded over Kurt as he remembered all of the jokes and remarks he made about Blaine being rich. He looked at him sympathetically and nodded, saying, "Oh god, I'm sorry, I had no idea."

"It's okay," Blaine replies coolly, seemingly okay with the situation, "you couldn't ha-"

"Wait did you say come out? Of what?" Kurt interjects, actually processing what Blaine said.

Blaine just looks at the boy in front of him, trying to catch any signs of a joke on his face. "Out of… the closet?" Kurt's eyes just get bigger, the size of the moon. "Geez, Kurt, have you really been under a rock for the past four years? Did no one tell you I was gay? Like, I never even tried to hide it," he said, amused and equally confused.

In Kurt's mind, everything suddenly made so much more sense. All he could get out was "Oh", and Blaine just laughed.

"Oh?"

"Oh." Kurt repeated, stunned to silence for what seemed like the first time in a few weeks.

"Anyway, back to the point," Blaine started, the smile on his face faltering a bit, "when all of that happened, I just tried to make the best of a bad deal. All I really had to do was find something to take my mind off of whatever was going on around me. For me, it was binge watching movies with Sam- it's kind of my guilty pleasure. So, is there something like that for you? A distraction maybe?"

Without missing a beat, Kurt immediately replies, almost on impulse. "Taylor Swi-", he cuts himself off, but his face flushes red when he realizes that he had pretty much let the cat out of it's bag. Not that he was embarrassed, but it would make him even more of a stereotype. He was gay, but he wasn't that gay.

Blaine, on the other hand, broke into a full face grin. "You have got to be kidding me. Go get your coat and mask, we're leaving."


	6. It's Nice To Have A Friend

"So when are you gonna tell me why we're in Target?" Kurt asked as he pushed their shopping cart.

"Because, dummy," Blaine turned to Kurt and smiled his signature smile, "This is like, the best store ever."

"I can hear you smiling, but you are aware that I can't actually see it, right?" Kurt quipped, gesturing to his mask and rolling his eyes at the boy next to him.

"Shut up, I know what I'm doing." Blaine kept his stride before turning down an aisle near the electronics section. He stopped right in front of the vinyl records and cd's and turned to Kurt. "Here, Hummel, we have Target's finest selling of physical copies of music albums. Luckily, they're fully stocked, because no one buys cd's anymore, and especially not during a pandemic. This is your lucky day, Kurt Elizabeth, because you can get whatever you want, my treat."

Kurt grinned beneath his mask at the mention of his middle name; it never failed to make him think of his mother.

Blaine caught this and said, "You're grinning, I can tell. Your eyes are doing that stupid squinty thing. Why are you grinning?"

Kurt looked down at his feet sheepishly. "You uh, you still remember my middle name."

Blaine grabbed the end of the cart and pulled it away from Kurt. "Of course I do."

They stared at each other for a bit before Blaine broke away, chuckling. "Okay, Kurt, you stay here, I'm gonna go get some of the stuff we need back at the house, and then search for any scraps of toilet paper they have left. Remember what I said, get whatever you want." He turned to walk away before Kurt stopped him.

"I can't- I don't want to waste your money, Blaine. It's really not that important-"

"No, you're getting them. If I come back and you haven't picked out at least four records, I will literally force the names out of you so I can get them myself. Besides, it's the least I can do." He tries to say this as sincerely as possible, just so that Kurt knows he's being serious. "Oh, and if you see 'Sing To Me Instead', the one by Ben Platt, grab it for me."

He actually starts to walk away this time, but then smirks to himself and calls over his shoulder, "I can literally feel you staring at me, Kurt. Just get the damn album, we're not leaving until you do."

¤¤¤¤¤

A while later, Blaine is standing alone in the toilet paper aisle, wondering why one brand sells 24 rolls for a lower price than they do for 18 rolls. He just sighs and throws the 24-pack in the cart, deciding that it wasn't worth the headache.

"Blaine? Blaine? Bl- Oh! Blaine look!" He turned around to see Kurt practically skipping down the aisle, holding four vinyls in one hand and two cd's in the other. Before Blaine could get a word out, Kurt was right in front of him, talking too fast for him to keep up. _Honestly,_ he thinks, _that's adorable_.

Wait, what, no.

"I found the Lover vinyl," he holds up a bright pink record. "And then I found 1989, which is like, iconic," he holds up another album, this one's cover art looking like a Polaroid. "I got Kid Krow too, because it's too beautiful to not experience on vinyl," he held up a plain record with a man sitting on the front, knees brought to his chest and a crow perched on his shoulder.

"And this, Blaine, is for you. The king himself, Ben Platt." He handed Blaine the album he requested and watched as he hugged it tightly to his chest.

Blaine closed his eyes and hummed in content, mumbling, "Oh, sweet gay jesus, I am in love with this man's voice."

His words too Kurt aback, even though it was something he'd said a million times before. Kurt wondered how he never knew he was gay until just hours before.

He sat the vinyls he held down in the cart and held each cd in either hand. He held one out to where the other boy stood, still cradling the vinyl in his arms. "For the cd's, I got Katy-"

"Gasp!" Blaine yelled, pointing at the album in Kurt's hand.

"Did you really just say the word gasp-"

"Gasp!"

"Stop saying t-"

Blaine snatched the cd out of his hands and threw it in the cart, pulling it with him and walking out of the aisle. "C'mon, we're leaving, I have to listen to this like, right now."

Kurt scoffed and smiled, trailing behind Blaine. "God, you're overdramatic."

¤¤¤¤¤

They stood together in the kitchen after the drive home, putting groceries away while 'I Wish You Would' plays softly on the record player they took from Mercedes' closet.

"Why'd you get two huge bottles of ketchup? Who the hell would ever need this much?" Kurt called to Blaine, who had walked to the closet by the bathroom to put away the toilet paper.

"I don't know," he called back, and Kurt could hear his voice, "I was distracted"

"By what, your need to listen to Teenage Dream at full volume five times?"

"It was six times actually, and no, that's not it, it was just..." he trailed off, cursing himself when he feels his face heat up undeniably.

Kurt turns his head to face the boy when he goes quiet. "Blaine?"

Blaine cleared his throat and smiled, "You know, we haven't fought in like... four hours, right? That's like, a record for us."

It's Kurt's turn to blush, and he turns his head a way. A playful smile crawls it's way onto his face, and he just says "Yeah, I'm well aware."

¤¤¤¤¤

The two boys both lay opposite of each other on the living room floor, letting the hands of time slowly tick away. Light from the steady setting sun cast through the room, through the windows that had been lest open, a soft breeze streaming past the golden shadows of sun and into the room. Uno cards were strewn across the floor and a Monopoly board was shoved off into a corner, it's pieces next to it, all thrown aside in a flurry, rushing to play the next game. 'Grow As We Go' softly wafted through the room, the sound of the calming music clashing with the high laughter of Kurt and Blaine, who had moved on to play 21 Questions.

"Your favorite movie cannot be Heathers, Blaine, it's horrible" Kurt's voice filled the void between bursts of laughter that shot from the two of them.

Blaine bellowed with laughter and rolled over to his sides to face Kurt, who was giggling and staring at the ceiling with his hands clasped on his stomach. From this angle, Blaine could see the way the sunlight cast shadows over his face, illuminating his features, sharpening and softening in a manner that seemed to fit perfectly.

"Says you!" he exclaims, voice full of mock offense. "You obsessively quote Mean Girls, your opinion is no better than mine!"

"Fine, fine," Kurt rolls over to his side to face Blaine. He hadn't realized how close- so, so close- they were. If he wanted to, he could just-

No.

His eyes rake over Blaine's face once more and catch his eyes, whiskey golden but seeming so much brighter in the sunlight. Like honey, rich and intense and golden and _god_ -

"Kurt?" Blaine's voice snaps him out of the trance he managed to pull himself into and he quickly scoots back, putting a safe distance between himself and whatever the hell just happened.

He cleared his throat and smiled, shaking off any uneasy feeling that caught. "Next question? We're on 17, right?"

Blaine fell right back into the game, not missing a beat. "No, actually, we're on 18." He looked down at the list on his phone before continuing, "What is your favorite place in the world and why?"

Kurt thought about the question for a minute, considering his options. "Manhattan Beach, but only at night." He spoke surely after coming to a decision.

He watches as Blaine twists to sit up, cross-legged with his head on his hands and elbows on each knee. Kurt mirrors his position and sits up also, but opts to sit straighter than Blaine, hating bad posture.

The song on the record player changes to 'Honest Man', and Kurt feels the energy in the room shift as the first lyrics ring out.

_There's something about you in moonlight, but your eyes go so well with the day_

Kurt is a few inches taller than Blaine, so he has to look up at him through hooded eyelids. "The beach, really? I'm intrigued, Hummel, tell me more" Blaine shoots playfully.

_You won't let go of your layers, but your power can strip me away_

Kurt looks down sheepishly and clasps his hands in his lap. "When we first moved up here, Rachel and I spent the whole day at the beach. She had to leave early, something about her voice training schedule needing to be perfect. I stayed though, for the rest of the night. The sunset was so beautiful, too, and I just felt so at peace with life. It's stupid, but I go back whenever I get the chance, just to sit and watch the sunset."

_It's easier for us to hide, if you come out then so will I, promise that I'll meet you halfway_

Blaine nodded knowingly, and for a moment, the only thing that could be heard was the music. Suddenly, he jumped up and brushed off his pants, saying "C'mon, follow me."

He started to turn out of the living room before he turned back to Kurt, who was still sitting on the living room floor, confused. Blaine just sighed and grabbed his hand, pulling him up to his feet and towards the door.

_Cause I see every part of you, and I can tell you see me too, by the way that you say my name_

Kurt slipped his shoes on as fast as possible and asked where they were going. Blaine just told him not to worry about it, and they they wouldn't be going far.

They left quickly, not bothering to lock the door, and to Kurt's surprise, they turned down the opposite end of the hallway, away from the elevator. "We're going up" was all that Blaine told him, and then they were in a staircase that seemed never ending.

They stopped when they reached a door at the top. Blaine paused, which made Kurt never for whatever the door was separating them from.

He then pushed the door open and stepped out, Kurt following close behind. They were on the roof.

He was never afraid of heights. Frankly, he loved them, it gave him a truly exhilarating feeling. But everything up here was so beautiful overwhelming that he was stunned. Kurt took a few cautious steps forward, wanting to get a better look at everything.

The New York City skyline was dark and ominous against the bright golden outline, as if the sun was trying to peak over each building. Hues of yellow and orange clashed with pink and purple, and Kurt just stared in awe. It was gorgeous.

_Gorgeous._

It was the only word in Blaine's mind as he stared at Kurt, then towards the sky, then back again. He tried to shake it out, think of anything else, but it came back bigger and bolder each time. _God_ , he thought, _there's got to be something wrong with me_. He was fully aware of Kurt hating him, painfully aware, and even though he wished that wasn't the case, he couldn't change his mind.

He looks over to where Kurt is standing, back turned to him and only a few feet away. Blaine huffed and walked over to him, not saying anything. He just stood by Kurt's side, gazing out at the city, so peaceful yet so full of life.

They stood side by side, neither keeping track of time, just watching the light fall before them.

It was Kurt who spoke first, cutting through the air that had grown comfortable for the two. "I don't really like hating you." It came out barely above a whisper, and if Blaine was just a few inches further, he wouldn't have heard it. His words sent a dull ache through Blaine's chest, realizing just how long it'd been since they were able to to have a day like the one they just experienced with no arguments.

"Hey, Kurt?" He asks, not turning to face him yet, either.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't yelled at me in about six hours."

Kurt turned to look at Blaine, who was still looking out at the skyline. "I don't want to anymore. I never realized how much I missed being your friend." At this, Blaine looks at Kurt. "I don't want to hate you anymore, Blaine, it's not fun. The yelling and fighting- it's getting us nowhere. I just..." he takes Blaine's hands in his own, which makes Blaine's heart rate speed up so rapidly that he almost passes out, "Can we just be friends again? I know that it's really childish, and I'm technically the one who ended the friendship the first time, but I'm just so tired of hating you."

Blaine suddenly feels so overcome with emotion- so, so many emotions. He feels so much and he could cry, he's finally getting his best friend back. He smiled so hard that it hurt, looked at where there hands were intertwined between them, and then looked back at Kurt.

"Even though I fucked up?" Blaine asked, voice thick and eyes glassy.

Kurt looked to him with a smile. "Even though you fucked up." He says reassuringly, squeezing Blaine's hand once. "Let's just start over. I forgave you a long time ago, everything else was just my pent up anger. Can we do that?"

Blaine just nods and stutters out a thank you before wrapping his arms around Kurt, having to stand up a bit on his tiptoes. When Kurt hugged him back, he relaxed, and every bit of tension that had been resting on him lifted in mere seconds.

He felt at peace. Even with the blaring white noise of New York City beneath them, he was finally at ease. Kurt had forgiven him for the mess he'd made.

He had his friend again, and that was more than enough.

He felt at home.


	7. Cruel Summer

"You can't keep walking away from me, Blaine!"

Blaine rolled his eyes and continued walking in the opposite direction from Kurt, towards the living room. "I'm not walking away, you're following me, and I'm done with this conversation."

"It's not my job to clean up after you, you're not a baby." Kurt exclaimed, quite offended with the fact that Blaine was dismissing him.

Blaine threw himself on the couch and groaned, running a hand through his unruly curls that were honestly getting far too long.

"You can sit your ass on this couch for however long you want, but you need to go clean up your shit in the bedroom. Im sleeping there tonight and it should have been done this morning." Kurt was practically lecturing him at this point, but what else was new?

"Fine, whatever, I'll do it in a minute." He just waved him off, not bothering to look at him.

Kurt groaned loudly and crossed his arms over his chest. "God, I hate you."

Blaine's head snaps up and he stares at Kurt. They go about thirty seconds before breaking eye contact and bursting into uncontrollable laughter. "Come sit down," Blaine says, still giggling, "I'm bored. Let's play Mario Kart or something."

This was exactly how each of their arguments ended lately. It would start with something small and unimportant, such as Kurt forgetting to take out the trash or clean up after he cooks, or Blaine leaving water all over the bathroom floor and not doing the dishes. They'd argue for a bit before one of them cracks a joke, the bickering turning into full bellied laughter, and everything was okay.

The last time Kurt called Santana to tell her how he'd been, she said that they reminded her of an old married couple, and that their domesticity was so sickeningly sweet that she needed to see a dentist.

He wanted to just ignore her, but he had to admit that he wasn't too far off. They had been pretty close lately, but that wasn't weird, was it? Sure, it was a bit strange how they hated each other only a few weeks ago, but that had been sorted out in time. They were friends again, and that was alright, right?

Santana's words rang through his mind all day, only getting louder when Blaine was around. It made absolutely no sense to him, it felt like all of this had come out of nowhere. It all felt like one big fever dream high, and everything with Blaine felt like a push and pull, cat-and-mouse game that had been going on forever. It was a constant teetering between "If I bleed you'll be the last to know" and "What doesn't kill me makes me want you more" and Kurt didn't know what to drop the hammer on. Surely, there was nothing there, right?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a bright camera flash followed by Blaine's laughter, a sound Kurt found intoxicating. "Oh, I am totally sending that to Mercedes."

Kurt was shocked back into reality at Blaine's words. "Excuse me, what?"

Blaine giggled and held up a finger, typing away at his phone for a moment. "Dude, I've been trying to get your attention for like... three minutes. You were just staring into space, and Mercedes asked me to send her more pictures of you, so I saw a chance and took it."

"More?" Kurt asked, confused.

"Uh, yeah," he brought a hand up to his hair to twist a few strands between his fingers, "I take all these pictures of you to send to our friends."

Kurt gapes and stares at him in shock, feeling vaguely violated, but he can't stay mad for long.

He watches Blaine reach over the couch, somewhere towards the stack of board games against the wall. He comes back up with a black box with white lettering. "Wanna play Cards Against Humanity?" He asks, eyes mischievous and grinning like a devil. Kurt feels his heart flutter a bit and sighs, nodding his head in response.

He knows deep down that he's whipped, but he can't admit it to himself, and it's driving him mad.

Emotions were cruelty at it's finest.

Blaine, on the other hand, is handling things pretty well. Ever since the night on the roof, he had slowly begun processing the way he felt. Blaine loved being friends with Kurt, and the little domestic things they did. They tried out new recipes on the other, song their hearts out in the living room with whatever duets they could find, and stayed up to ungodly hours of the night binge watching cooking shows. Things were falling back into the way they were before they fell apart, and he was happy.

So, when they were back up on the roof almost every day, he ignored the way the sun fell on all of Kurt's features beautifully. When he noticed a long strand of hair fall into Kurt's face because he never bothered to put product in it anymore, he pushed away the urge to sweep it away, and ignored it. When he watched Kurt dance to 'Blank Space' at three in the morning, when he sang "Darling I'm a nightmare, dressed like a daydream" in a low register, sultry and gorgeous, then winked at Blaine in a way that made his sleep deprived heart soar, he forced the feeling down and ignored it. Every time Kurt's eyes would meet his, glasz meeting gold in such an irrevocably innocent way, he turned his head away and _ignored it_.

He hated the feeling of hiding something from Kurt, but he knew it was necessary. Above anything, he knew that reserving and rekindling their friendship was more important than whatever he felt. Still, there was a constant nagging in the back of his mind. A voice that Blaine knew was his heart. A voice that said "I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you", a voice that told him that if he didn't let it out now, he'd blow up later. He ignored that, too, but always wished he didn't have to.

It's not like Kurt feels the same, right?

¤¤¤¤¤

"Remind me again of why you forced me to come to the store with you?" Kurt deadpans, leaning against the Target shopping cart Blaine is making him push again.

"Because," Blaine says, grabbing two boxes of spaghetti noodles and throwing them in the cart, "we haven't gone shopping in three weeks. Unless you'd rather starve, we need food, love."

Kurt blushes furiously at the petname. Years ago, Blaine would call him that all the time, and he had recently started calling him that again. It seemed so different now, so much more intimate and maybe he really was going crazy.

"Fine, but I'll be right back." He pushed the cart towards Blaine, who stopped it with one hand and waved. Kurt turned out of the aisle, heading away from the boy.

About fifteen minutes later, just as Blaine was finishing up with the groceries, Kurt still hadn't come back. He wasn't worried, but he was ready to leave, so he decided to go look for him.

Blaine found him near the home decor, holding four small boxes in his hands. He stood at the end of an aisle, chatting it up with a random guy Blaine had never met before. He felt a slight pang in his chest, and the first thing Blaine noticed was the fact that they were nowhere near six feet apart- there was only about a foot and a half of space between them. They were both wearing masks, thank god, but he was still standing too close. Far too close.

He walked over to them, making sure to keep a distance from the other man, and Kurt stopped talking once he noticed Blaine approaching. "Come on, I'm done with the list now, let's go."

Kurt took a second to say goodbye to the man and Blaine rolled his eyes, wanting to leave. When Kurt finally walks over to him, he throws the boxes in the cart and Blaine looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "Fairy lights, I thought we could put them up in the apartment." Kurt says, an unmistakable glint in his eye that makes Blaine soften.

He pushes the cart a bit faster toward the checkout area, then decides to ask, "Who was that? Did you know him?"

Kurt looks confused for a moment before answering, "Oh, Brody? That was Rachel's ex, he goes to NYADA with us."

Blaine just hummed in response before pushing the cart up to a checkout, starting to put things on the conveyor belt. Kurt passes him a few things out of his reach and notices the cashier eyeing the two of them. He pulls Blaine by the arm, holding him close to whisper in his ear, "She's been staring at us the entire time we've been over here."

Blaine then eyes the cashier, a young woman with short, golden blonde hair and thick glasses, and cleared his throat, asking, "How much will it be? We need to get going."

He sounds a bit irritated, and at hearing his tone, she immediately apologizes, rambling, "Oh, no, I wasn't- I'm not... you guys are- I just think you guys make a cute couple."

Kurt feels his face heat up, but Blaine just laughs. They both open their mouths to speak.

"Oh no, we're not..."

"Thank you."

Kurt's eyes widen at Blaine, wondering why the hell Blaine didn't just correct her. His eyes then meet Kurt's and he winks, which quite literally takes his breath away.

¤¤¤¤¤

"You can't just say stuff like that to people, Blaine. She probably believed you." Kurt whined from where he sat at the counter.

Blaine smirks from the living room, feeling a bit bold and finding his whining adorable. He's accepted it at this point. "You act like you give a bloody hell. You're in shambles over something that happened an hour ago, let it go, love."

Kurt hops down from the stool he's sat in and walks into the living room. "That sentence was so violently, stereotypically English, Blaine."

"So was the summer I spent in London, you don't see me complaining." He laughed and stood up, heading down the hall.

"Wait, your what? Don't walk away from me, Blaine Anderson."


	8. ME!

"Why are you listening to Christmas music? It's nowhere near Christmas, dude." Blaine calls from the bedroom, hearing the opening notes of 'Baby It's Cold Outside'. He was in bed, covered in the blanket and staring out the window, even though it was only about 8 o'clock.

"I'm in a festive mood, deal with it!"

"Maybe I don't want to", Blaine laughs at his friend and kicks the covers off of himself, standing up and heading to the kitchen. There Kurt stood, leaning over the stove, cooking whatever concoction he could come up with for the both of them to eat. Kurt's back was turned to Blaine, apparently not hearing him walk up. Blaine laughed to himself, thinking about how often they ended up in this exact same scenario. Only this time, he decided not to startle the boy in front of him and instead headed back to the bedroom.

It was dark outside, so he sat on the bed and faced the window, looking out at the people on the street below. He frowned, feeling a bit restless.

Blaine was bored out of his mind. They had been in quarantine for almost two months, and he felt like he'd already done everything to keep himself entertained. Every board and card game had been played at least three times already. Every video game became repetitive, considering the amount of time he spent glued to the TV. He sung and danced, cooked and cleaned- crazy, right? But everything still seemed so utterly...boring. The days blended together and if you asked him, Blaine couldn't tell you the difference between Wednesday and last Friday.

Since deciding to put his feelings on hold, everything in his mind seemed so dull. Blaine never thought something like this could have such an impact on him, especially since it came out of nowhere. It seemed like one day they hated each other, and the next, he woke up and Kurt was there, all bright blue eyes and adorable laugh and intoxicating smile and it hit him like a brick.

Blaine threw himself back on the bed and sighed. Repress it, that's all he needed to do, easy. He stared at the ceiling, willing himself to think about anything else. Before long, he slowly drifted off, his mind on none other than the exact thing he was avoiding.

Kurt stood in the kitchen, only about eleven yards away, typing away on his phone. He had finished cooking around 10 minutes ago, so he turned the stove off and threw a lid on the pot when he heard his phone chime- a text from Mercedes.

 **Cedes:**  
soooo how are things going with your lover?

 **Kurt** :  
i seriously regret telling you any of this

A week ago, when Blaine left the apartment to pickup pancakes that Kurt forced him to order, he called Mercedes came clean to her about everything. From start to finish, he told her about the first day they arrived, the daily fighting, the day Kurt finally blew up at him and cried, shopping and buying music and watching the sun set on the roof. He told her about how he asked to be friends again. By the end, he was a blubbering mess, going on and on about how much he hated hating him and how everything was so damn confusing now.

When all of his ranting was done, Mercedes just inhaled, considering her next words carefully. "You do know he most likely feels the same way, right? I mean, you're not stupid, and from what you just told me-"

Kurt hung up immediately.

That was a week ago, and today, it seems that Mercedes had decided to torment him even more. As much as he loved her, he really couldn't stand her when she was like this.

 **Cedes:**  
you know you love me

 **Kurt:**  
highly debatable

 **Cedes:**  
wow, my feelings

 **Kurt:**  
oh shush ily

 **Kurt:**  
but seriously, what do you need

 **Cedes:**  
well i was gonna give you some  
helpful advice, but since youre  
so mean, im just gonna publicly  
shame you

 **Kurt:**  
publicly?

He then got a notification, this one reading "Added To Groupchat"

**To: DFTKR**

**Kurt:**  
what does that even stand for-

 **Satan** :  
dont answer that britt

 **Cedes:**  
...

 **Britt:**  
well i think it stands for Dont  
Fight The Klaine Romance  
but santana said not to say  
anything so idk

 **Rach:**  
oh god

 **Cedes:**  
anyway, this is happening,  
whether you like it or not

 **Satan:**  
and she already told us  
*everything*

 **Cedes:**  
oml you weren't supposed  
to tell him that either

 **Satan:**  
i have no shame

 **Rach:**  
this is a trainwreck

 **Kurt:**  
am i allowed to leave yet?

 **Britt:**  
no

 **Rach:**  
not a chance

 **Satan:**  
dont you fucking dare hummel

 **Cedes:**  
not at all

 **Britt:**  
hey no profanity

 **Kurt:**  
i hate every single one of you

 **Rach:**  
love you too, hun

 **Rach:**  
and besides, its not like you  
have anything better to do

 **Satan:**  
well, he has *someone* better  
to do

With that, Kurt rolled his eyes and powered his phone off, sitting it on the counter in front of him. He put his head in his hands and groaned- truly not wanting to think about this anymore. He had come to terms with the fact that there was something going on with his mind, but he still had no idea what it was. Until he did, he just wanted to keep it in a box, hidden forever.

Truth is- he accepted his undeniable attraction to Blaine. At first, that's all it was. Watching the way his eyes glimmer in the light, or the way his soft curls fell over his forehead, or how his laugh was as addicting as a drug and Kurt couldn't be rehabilitated. No big deal, he told himself, it's innocent. He just admired from afar, it was better that way. Anything more made him feel...gross. He knew now that Blaine was gay, but it still made him feel predatory in some way. Remnants of his high school torment lingered in his mind no matter how hard he tried to push past it.

_Just push past it._

Kurt repeated the mantra to himself as he decided to go grab Blaine to come and eat. Walking down the hall, he took quick, deep breaths to cool himself off from the unmistakable flush that crept onto his face after talking to Mercedes.

He was a bit surprised when he found the door cracked open, light from the lamp flooding out into the dark hallway. Kurt knocked twice, called out Blaine's name, and knocked once more before pushing the door open all of the way.

_Oh._

_He's asleep._

Kurt takes a few quiet steps forward into the room, leaving the door open behind him. Upon getting a better look, he saw that Blaine was curled in on himself in a sort of fetal position. His hair fell forward on one side, covering up most of his face from Kurt's view. He breathed softly, matching the steady breeze coming in through the open window. There was a mess of clothes on the floor, in typical Blaine fashion- some things truly never change. Despite himself, Kurt thought it was all pretty adorable.

_Adorable?_

He tried to shake the word out of his head, even tried to think of the mess on the floor. It was impossible, all roads led back to Blaine.

Kurt sighed and decided to just let Blaine rest. He walked over the the lamp on the bedside table and flicked the switch, turning it off.

Immediately, almost as if on cue, he heard faint whimpers come from where Blaine lay on the bed. "Blaine?" Kurt blinked a few times in an attempt to get his eyes adjusted to the dark room, where the only light source was the still open window and the street lamps outside.

Blaine's head lifted off the pillow slowing, and he looked around with wide eyes before landing on Kurt. "Turn it on."

"What?"

"The lamp," Blaine stutters out, not wanting to break so soon. "It's off, why is it off? Turn it back on, please." He hadn't realized his body was so tense until he heard the faint click of the lamp and saw light fill the room again, and he visibly relaxed.

Kurt looked at him, confused and a bit intrigued, mind going 30 miles a minute and curious as to how Blaine had woken up so easily.

Blaine wiped his tired eyes and looked up at Kurt only a bit embarrassed. Kurt would most likely have questions, but he didn't want to answer them, at least now right now. Right now, he only needed one thing. Blaine looked down at the sheets- they were fisted in his hands- and released, then made grabby hands at Kurt, still keeping his head down a bit. "Hug?"

Kurt obliges without question and leans down to hug the other boy. Blaine wraps his arms around around him and buries his face in the crook of his neck. He exhales shakily and inhales deeply, searching for that safe place, a secure feeling where-

"You okay, Bee?" Kurt asks, rubbing his back with one hand in a smooth, circular motion.

Bee. A nickname Kurt had given him in high school- he hadn't heard it in years.

 _Safe_. He felt safe.

He just answered Kurt's question by nodding, not even bothering to move his head from it's place. Blaine hummed happily and tightened his grip a little, not caring one bit about how this might look to anyone else. He really just needed a hug from his friend, no less, no more.

Kurt accepted his answer and asked his next question. "Well, are you gonna tell me what happened? I mean, not that it was too weird or anything, but you kind of looked scared and I'm pretty sure you're shaking right now."

Blaine shook his head, not really wanting to talk about it at the moment. He knew he was a handful sometimes, but he really didn't care.

"Bad dreams?" He shook his head again, not letting up on his grip.

Kurt thought for a moment before deciding on something so painfully obvious that he feels stupid for not thinking of it sooner. "Are you scared of the dark or something, Bee?"

Blaine hesitated for a moment before mumbling, "Yes and no". It's an honest answer, but the actual explanation would be much to long to tell in his state.

"Yes and no? Huh, that's new. Do you wanna talk about it?"

Blaine just shook his head once more, releasing his grip on Kurt by just a bit.

"Well, I'm right here if you do. And let me keep you company, you seemed lonely in here." Kurt says, reassuring Blaine that he was staying.

Only a few minutes managed to pass before Kurt spoke up again, releasing himself from Blaine's grip with a small amount of protest from the boy. "So I know I tend to make things about me, but I'm kinda bored..." He trails off with a small smile crawling onto his face. "How about we go build a fort? I've always wanted to."

Blaine pulled back from him to look in his eyes. "Let's do it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am aware of the fact that this is horribly written and seems like filler, but its gonna be real important later so just pay close attention to the whole scared of the dark thing 
> 
> and the next chapter wont be as bad, i promise


	9. I Think He Knows

If you were to ask them about what happened the next day, Kurt would tell you that he had no idea how it all began.

Blaine would tell you that each move he made was planned meticulously and carefully.

Kurt would tell you that he didn't have a clue where his sudden confidence came from in that moment.

Blaine would tell you that everything was thrown off track when the lights went off and the wine came out, though he never once faltered.

But neither could tell you how it happened.

Just how it ended.

¤¤¤¤¤

It started the morning after Blaine's slight freakout about the lamp in the bedroom.

He woke up on the couch, the TV still on but silent. Looking down, he saw his phone buzzing next to him- the sound most likely being what woke him up- and checked the Caller ID- _Sam_. Of course it was him.

Blaine picked up the phone and answered with a groggy "Hello?"

"Hi, Blainey!" The voice on the other end dragged the words on, much too cheerfully.

Blaine furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Wait...Tina?" He held out the phone to check the Caller ID once more, still reading Sam's name. "How are you- did you steal Sam's phone?"

"That information isn't up for disclosure at the moment, Blainey Days, but we have more important matters at hand." Tina says, barely able to suppress a smile.

"Who is 'we'?" He asks, slightly suspicious.

"I'm here, too," he hears Sam's voice then come through the speaker, "because someone decided to wake me up for this even though she could have done it herself."

"Hey! It was your idea!" Tina retorts, defending herself.

"I didn't say to call him at the crack of dawn! I wanted to sleep!" Sam exclaims, and Blaine only then notices how tired his friend sounded.

He listened to his friends pointless arguing for a moment before interrupting them. "As much as I love to hear your endless bickering, is there a reason you guys called me?"

Both Sam and Tina stop talking at the exact same time, and he hears faint mumbling between the two of them before a hushed "okay".

"What we're going to tell you is either going to make you love or hate us ten times more," Sam started, sounding a lot more levelheaded than before. "But I don't really care, cause I know you love us anyway."

Tina spoke up, adding, "Oh, and you can't get mad at anyone. Especially Mercedes and Mike, because they keep telling us not to do this... even though Mike was fangirling when she told us."

"Told you what?" Blaine asks, sitting up and curious.

He heard them both inhale deeply and smiled, he truly did miss his friends and their antics.

"So you know how you're like, in love with Kurt or whatever, right?" Sam asks expectantly.

"I never said that!" Blaine exclaims defensively, feeling his face heat up at the accusation.

"Oh please, it's obvious, we can all tell" Tina says, and he can almost hear the smirk in her voice.

"That's not even tr-"

"Anyway, Mercedes apparently called him a week ago," Sam says, cutting him off, "and she said that he told her that you guys were like... getting really close again."

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" Blaine asked tentatively, not sure where this conversation was going. "I mean, what did you expect, we're basically roommates."

He hears a soft "Oh my god, they were roommates" from Sam and almost cracks up laughing.

Tina just scoffs and says, "We're getting there, geez."

"So she tells us about how he was saying that he felt bad about something and how everything was so confusing. And we were like, 'What was confusing', and she was like, 'I probably shouldn't tell you this, but Kurt thinks he likes Blaine. Like.... likes Blaine.'"

Blaine's jaw drops and he stares at the wall in front of him, dumbfounded. The only thing keeping his hand up to hold his phone to his ear was his need to hear the rest of what they had to say.

Tina then cuts in, saying, "We were all sitting there like 'oh my god', but honestly, it made so much sense. Then, Operation Klaine got a hundred times easier."

"What's 'Operation Klaine'?" He asks, and it comes out a bit too breathy, so his brings a hand up to his head to twist a curl between his fingers.

"It's best if you don't ask questions, dude." Sam says, and Blaine just huffs at the withholding of information. "Back to the point, he's like, totally in love with you, man."

Blaine shook his head in disbelief and laughed awkwardly. "So you mean to tell me that the same guy who literally hated me up until a few weeks ago is actually secretly in love with me? Nah, sorry, I don't believe that. And your obsession with my love life is weird- you too Tina, pay attention to your own."

"But, Blaine!" Tina whines, desperately wanting their plan to go through.

"Nope, no buts, this conversation is over." He wasn't necessarily annoyed, it just felt odd to talk about Kurt behind his back like this. Especially about this.

"Ugh, fine." Sam grumbled and immediately hung up, leaving a satisfied on his face. He sat his phone down on the couch next to himself and let Sam's words truly sink in.

Kurt....liked him?

No, that can't be true, right?

Sure, there had been times where he caught Kurt staring at him or heard his breath hitch when they hugged. And, sure, he saw how Kurt would get noticeably more clingy when he was sleepy, or how he'd blush whenever Blaine called him 'love'. But that was all normal, right?

_Oh god..._

¤¤¤¤¤

Almost an hour later, Kurt woke up to the soft sound of music on the record player and the sweet smell of Blaine cooking.

Still in bed, he stretched and groaned, part of him wanting to stay in bed all morning. But something in him decided to get up and walk out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.

Once he stepped into the hall, he recognized the song on the the record player and stopped in his tracks. It was 'Lover' by Taylor Swift, the title track from one of the albums Blaine bought for him. Something in his stomach tightened and he felt butterflies, knowing that this song would, without a doubt, make him emotional. It always did, especially recently- it made him think of Blaine.

Sure, maybe he did have a tiny crush on his friend, but it didn't matter. He surely didn't feel the same.

Kurt pushes last the feeling in his stomach and walks straight to the kitchen, where Blaine is leaning on the fridge, seemingly in deep thought. Kurt walks straight up to him and taps his shoulder, making the boy turn to face him.

Blaine lets out a "Hey!", high pitched and airy, which makes Kurt unsure of whether he should be concerned or laugh.

He just opts for tilting his head a bit and saying, "Well... okay? You fell asleep before we could actually build the fort last night, so I was wondering if you wanted to do that today maybe?"

Blaine takes a step forwards and his eyes rake across Kurt's face, then land on his eyes.

Though he wants to break away, Kurt maintains eye contact, but on the inside he's screaming because Blaine is so, so close and the air is too thick and he almost can't breathe and _oh god is it hot in here-_

"Yeah, we can do that," Blaine says, low and hot and Kurt thinks he's losing his mind. "But," he says, finally letting up and taking a few steps back until he's against the fridge again, "You have to go to the store to get a few things for me- well, us. Cause what good is a fort without stuff to do in it?"

Kurt takes a deep breath and blinks a few times, looking at the boy in front of him. He nods slowly and turns to walk away.

Behind him, Blaine let out a breath he wasn't even aware he was holding in. After his phone call with Tina and Sam, all he could think about was the possibility that Kurt might actually like him back. So, he decided to test the theory in various ways, one of those ways being to see Kurt's reaction if Blaine leaned in as if he was going to kiss him. He was pleasantly surprised when Kurt didn't immediately pull away and retract in horror or disgust, which sent a surge of confidence into Blaine's head.

He got an idea, and, feeling bold, called out to Kurt, who had barely gotten ten steps away. "Hey, Kurt, come here real quick. Well, actually..." he trailed off and walked over to Kurt, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him back into the kitchen. "Wait here." He walks to the record player next to the TV and fiddles with it before music fills the air once more as the song restarts.

Blaine walks back over to Kurt and takes his hand, pulling him closer and placing his other hand on his waist. "So in my dance class at NYADA, we were doing this ballroom dancing course, and it was honestly kinda fun."

Blaine looks at Kurt, who refuses to meet his eyes, and smiles. "You just have to put your hand on my shoulder," Kurt obliges, "Yeah, like that. I wanted to practice a bit, so, what do you say? C'mon, Hummel, get loose, I wanna see what's under that attitude of yours. It's just dancing, love."

Kurt eyes finally meet Blaine's and he nods softly, not really able to speak at the moment.

They moved slowly at first, a gentle rocking side to side that lined up with the chorus of the song.

_Can I go where you go, can we always be this close, forever and ever_

Their eyes never left each other's gaze, and suddenly Kurt had a realization.

"This...this is the song you were humming that day I told you about my dad, wasn't it?" He asked, a bit proud of himself for finally figuring it out.

_Take me out, and take me home (forever and ever)_

Blaine just grins and nods, and Kurt could swear that his heart leapt out of his chest and skipped straight down 16th Avenue.

_You're my, my, my, my lover_

Neither of them were sure how much time had passed, but by the time the bridge of the song rolled around, they still hadn't let go.

_Ladies and gentleman, will you please stand_

"Blaine?" Kurt says, voice wavering and just above a whisper.

_With every guitar string scar on my hand_

"Kurt?" Blaine replies teasingly, audibly more confident than the blushing boy in front of him.

The tension is the air is so thick, so unbearably wonderful that Kurt is certain that he isn't the only one to feel it. It's been building for weeks now, the eerie crescendo violin music that is the very foundation the soundtrack to their lives is at it's full peak and he just might explode. Blaine has to feel it, too, he has to know, it's too obvious now.

_I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover_

He stills for a moment, his mind shooting through thoughts of _Oh my god Blaine's right here I could just lean in-_

Kurt pulls himself away and takes a few, safe steps back, feeling airy and lightheaded. "You um... the store- I should go, yeah, I should uh... go. I'll be back, text me the stuff you wanted."

Blaine watched as he walked back into the bedroom, then came back a minute later wearing his mask, shoes, and a coat with his keys and phone in one hand. Kurt threw a quick "I'll be back" and he was out the door, leaving Blaine alone in the apartment while the song finished it's run on the record player.

He knew that it would be easy to get Kurt all flustered and worked up, but he never knew it would be that heavy and intense- and nothing even happened.

Blaine was left with only one thought in his mind:

Sam and Tina were probably right.


	10. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

"Hey, Bee? I'm back!" Kurt called into the quiet apartment, carrying four bags of an assorted amount of things Blaine asked him to get.

He heard Blaine's footsteps trudging down the hall before he saw him. "Did you get them?" Blaine's voice rang out excitedly behind him.

Kurt laughed and pulled a giant container of Red Vines put of a bag, setting it on the counter next to him. He then turned to face Blaine and was filled with adoration and surprise at the sight in front of him.

Blaine stood with wet hair, falling down in dark curls over his face, dripping onto the oversized red and gray McKinley High hoodie he wore- Kurt's hoodie.

"Is that my hoodie?" Kurt asks, suddenly feeling a lot better about what happened earlier. He crossed his arms over his chest and raised a teasing eyebrow at the boy in front of him.

Blaine immediately averted his eyes and looked down at the hoodie, blushing lightly. "Well, I just- I got out of the shower and I didn't really have anything clean so I got this and... yeah, sorry."

"Oh, no, don't apologize, Bee. You could even keep it if you want, it looks better on you anyway." Kurt says without missing a beat, not being able to stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth. Blaine just blushes harder and shrinks in on himself, making Kurt smile and notice how tiny he looked in the moment.

"Aw, Bee, you're blushing." Kurt teases, making Blaine roll his eyes at him.

"No 'm not..." He mumbles, willing the blush on his face to go away.

Kurt grins, satisfied and happy that he had the upper hand for once. "Enough of that. How 'bout we build that fort now, huh?"

¤¤¤¤¤

Some time later, the two boys had built a structure out of couch cushions and stools from the kitchen. The couch frame itself was used as a wall, pushed up closer to the TV. Blaine spent a good fifteen minutes looking for the extra sheets, but Kurt convinced him to just ask Sam.

Sam told him that they were at the top of the closet next to the bathroom, but not before telling him not to have sex in his bed.

Blaine disappears into the hall to go and retrieve the sheets from the closet, leaving Kurt alone in the living room, making sure the structure was stable enough to support the weight of the sheets.

It's noticeably silent for about five minutes, save for the sound of 'Wish You Were Sober' on the record player. Blaine had been quiet, too quiet, which was something that was extremely out of the ordinary. All he went to do was get a few extra sheets, he was taking a while.

"Blaine? You okay back there?" Kurt called from the living room, hoping Blaine could hear him. Only a few seconds later, he heard soft footsteps against the hardwood flooring and Blaine appeared in the corridor, a bit out of breath, pink flush set high on his cheeks. He mumbles something out, looking towards the floor, and Kurt can't quite make out what he said. "Can you repeat that, Bee?" He asks, staring at Blaine intently.

Blaine huffs and looks up at Kurt. "I couldn't reach them. The sheets, they were like, on the top shelf. I couldn't get them."

He was confused for a moment before realizing what Blaine meant. "Well you could have just asked for help." Kurt says sweetly, assuming that he could be able to reach them considering that he was a few inches taller than Blaine.

"Didn't wanna ask for help." Blaine mumbles, embarrassed- he really did hate depending on other people for things.

Kurt sighs and stands up, motioning for Blaine to come over to him. When he does, he tells Blaine to stay there and walks back to the closet, coming back only ten seconds later with a stack of folded sheets in one hand. He drops them to the floor between him and Blaine. "Now, was that so hard?"

The shorter boy rolls his eyes, which makes Kurt raise an eyebrow at him. Blaine then shakes his head and says, "Fine, I'll just ask next time, sorry."

Kurt replies with a quick thank you and Blaine averts his eyes again, directing them towards the pile of sheets on the floor.

_God, he was adorable sometimes._

He had control over the situation for once, and it was fun to see Blaine all embarrassed and flustered like this. Kurt's mind went back to what Mercedes told him a week ago, or all of his friends had been practically screaming at him for a while.

But Blaine couldn't like him back, right?

"You remember those fairy lights we bought a couple weeks ago?" Kurt asks, getting an idea. Blaine nods and he continues, "Can you go get them? They're in one of the drawers in the bedroom, I want to put them up later." Blaine just nods again and quickly walks back down the hall.

Kurt then reached down and grabbed one of the sheets, shaking it out until it was unfolded and spread it out on the floor in the middle of the base. He tossed a few pillows on the floor before grabbing another sheet. The cushions and stools we stacked high enough to where they had enough room to kneel, but there was quite a bit of space inside, so Kurt walked around the outside of the structure and draped on side of the sheet on each corner.

Blaine came back with four boxes of fairy lights just as Kurt went to grab another sheet. "Here, let me help with that" He says, dropping the boxed on the ground.

It took about fifteen more minutes to get it right- and a lot of awkward hand contact on Blaine's part- but they were proud of the end result. Somehow, they managed to get all four boxes of lights strung up inside the fort, the cord tucked between couch cushions. Kurt didn't want the lights on yet as it was still light outside, and told Blaine- who had been too eager to get them on- that as soon as it was dark out, they'd turn them on.

Blaine flinched at the thought of it being dark in the apartment, which reminded Kurt of a question he'd been meaning to ask him all day. "So, what happened last night? With the light in the room?" He trailed off a bit, waiting for Blaine to catch on.

When he did, Blaine groaned at the memory of the night before. "Can we just act like that didn't actually happen?"

Kurt squints at the boy in front of him, trying to read his expression. "It's really nothing to be ashamed of, Bee. I just want to ask why." He spoke softly, a counter to Blaine's hostile tone.

"Ask about what? A 21 year old that has some irrational fear of the dark? Yeah, no." Blaine exclaims defensively. It's not that he doesn't want to tell Kurt about it, he just thinks that it would be unnecessary to bring up old trauma.

"Yes, actually," Kurt begins, "It's not like I'll make fun of you or anything, we all have something we're afraid of." He pauses for a moment and walks over to Blaine, who looks up at him through thick eyelashes. "Do you trust me?" He asks, a bit low and breathy because wow since when was he even a little bit confident?

Blaine nods slowly, eyeing Kurt suspiciously. "Is there any reason for me not to?"

Kurt just smiles, replying with, "No, I was just checking."

Blaine smiles awkwardly and his eyes drop back to the floor, and _god, can he get any cuter?_

The shorter boy's head jerks up, eyes wide and face heating. "What did you just call me?"

Kurt is confused for a moment before it hits him; He said that out loud.

"Oh- what? Nothing, sorry." Kurt laughs, hoping that he seems calmer than he feels.

Blaine smirks knowingly, thinking back to what Sam and Tina told him. "Sure thing, love."

¤¤¤¤¤

Now that it was dark out, and with the pestering of Blaine every five minutes, Kurt turned on the fairy lights in the fort. Blaine crawled in first, gaping in childlike awe at the way the tiny tights glowed against the white sheets. Once he was inside, Kurt excused himself to go grab his laptop and took the chance to turn off every light in the apartment.

He rushed back to join Blaine in the fort, only to find him lying on his back, staring up at the lights with an adorable, dopey smile plastered on his face.

Kurt crawled in, throwing his laptop onto a random pillow. "Bee?" He tried, attempting to get Blaine's attention. When he didn't reply, he tapped on his forearm. Still no reply. Then, Kurt crawled over to one of the corners, where the end of the cord for the lights hung. He paused, considering if this was a good idea, but then proceeded to unplug the cord, cutting all of the lights out and leaving the entire apartment pitch black.

Blaine immediately shot up and tried to look around, whimpering when he realized that he couldn't see anything, he couldn't see Kurt. He shut his eyes tightly and backed himself up, flinching when his back hit a cushion.

"Bee? I'm over here, you can hear me, right?" Kurt's voice cuts through the deafening silence. Blaine was startled for only a second before crawling in the direction Kurt's voice came from- searching for any source of comfort. He stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and practically leapt into Kurt's arms, wrapping his own around Kurt's torso, babbling nonsense into his chest.

"Kurt, the light, what happened- turn it on, it's too,- the dark is too- the light, Kurt, back on, please"

Kurt just coos at him and rubs his back, pace matching Blaine's quick breathing pattern. "I know, I know, just breathe first, baby."

Blaine tenses and his eyes shoot open at the petname. That wasn't weird, right? It probably meant nothing, Kurt probably didn't even mean to say it. Besides, Mercedes called everyone that, it was normal... right?

He doesn't know how much time has passed when he realizes that he's calmed down, and it hits him that he's practically sitting in Kurt's lap. Not that he minds- he feels safe here. Even in the dark, even with all of the bad memories plaguing his mind, it feels right.

Blaine takes a shaky breath and speaks softly into the quiet air, "You know how I told you that my parents cut me off after I came out senior year?" When he gets no verbal reply, he continues. "The day I came out, they uh... my dad was just screaming all of this disgusting shit at me. At first, I didn't believe it, and it didn't scare me, but then he just..." He voice cracks more and more as he speaks, and he's thankful that Kurt can't see the few tears roll down his cheek.

"He just kept coming into my room, screaming at me, threatening me. And at some point, I actually started believing that he was going to hit me."

Kurt gasps above him. "He didn't-"

"No, no he never did," Blaine reassures, "But he would constantly come into my room just to break things, or to tell me about how I was going to hell, or that he should have just 'beat the gay out of me' when I was born. One day, he changed the doorknob on my bedroom door so I couldn't lock it anymore, and I genuinely thought he was going to hurt me. And something about that fear made me have all of these horrible nightmares. So I called Cooper, even though he was already in LA, he was the only person I could call. He talked to me for hours, just to help me calm down. I told him about everything, and he set up this account for me that he puts money in every week since they cut me off- that's where I get most of my money from. I told him about the nightmares, and he said that sleeping with the light on might help. It did, so every night since then, I've slept with the light on in some way. I don't know, I guess I just associate the dark with those bad memories." He finishes out strong, his breathing evening out as he slowly relaxed in Kurt's grip.

Throughout the entire thing, Kurt listened intently, blood boiling at the thought of someone emotionally scarring Blaine like that- especially his own parents. When he finished speaking, however, all he could muster out was a faint, "I'm so, so sorry you had to go through that, Blaine", and he fumbled around with the light cord again before plugging it back in.

When the fairy lights came back on, Blaine sighed in relief and leaned his head back on Kurt's shoulder. He looked up at Kurt, who looked upset about something. "Wait, what's wrong, love?" He asks, words feeling thick on his tongue. If this wasn't domestic life, he didn't know what was.

"Nothing, I just... I should have been there for you during all of that."

Blaine looks at him sympathetically and sits up, turning around to face him. "It's okay, you couldn't have known." When he still sees the same expression on Kurt's face, he grabs his hand and hold it between the two of them. "Hey, it's okay, really. At least you know now. And hey, it's been a long time coming, Kurt Hummel, but we're good now. It's you and me, against the world."

Kurt nods at him and their eyes meet again. It feels different this time, under the lights, and Blaine's heart soars at the intensity of the moment. It's so simple, but every nerve in his body is on fire and he feels vulnerable under Kurt's gaze, and hes almost certain that the feeling is mutual. It has to be. All he can think about is what happened in the kitchen that morning, and it gives him the confidence to continue on.

It's now or never, right?

"Hey, Kurt, can I ask you something?"

At that, Kurt's stomach twists and drops, and the only thing that comes out of his mouth is "Wine?".


	11. False God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ik its short, but the next chapter will be longer, so just be patient with me please lmao

Blaine's smile faltered. "Wine? Like... now?"

"Yeah!" Kurt says, too enthusiastically, "And I can get all the stuff I got at the store earlier. Yeah, I'll do that, be right back." As he crawled his was out, he winced at the sound own voice, which was shrill and high for some reason. His voice only really got like that when he was nervous, but he had no reason to be nervous right now.

All Blaine said was that he wanted to ask him a question. It was childishly simple, but it made him freak out.

He made his way to the kitchen, flicking the light switch to turn it on. Kurt walked over to one of the cabinets and pushed some things aside before finding the bottle of ridiculously priced Pinot Grigio that had been a gift from Mercedes' record label. It had already been opened as it had been there for almost a year, so he figured that she'd be fine with them drinking it.

Kurt grabbed the bottle and two- also ridiculously priced- wine glasses out of another cabinet. Holding them in one hand, he turned to the counter, where the container of Red Vines and a bag of random snacks Blaine forced him to buy sat.

Once he managed to balance everything in his arms, he carefully made his way back to the living room, making sure not to drop anything. When he reached the fort, he dropped to his knees and had to slowly scoot in, unable to use his hands.

Blaine took the bag and Red Vines, placing them on the ground next to himself while Kurt gingerly placed the wine and glasses between the two of them. He kept his eyes in the ground, fiddling with the golden foil on the bottle. He felt eyes on him and looked up to see Blaine staring at him.

The room was quiet, silent even, and everything in him was screaming at him, telling him that something was going on. With a sharp intake of breath, Kurt said, "Music! Or I mean, something... it's quiet in here. I'm gonna go turn on the record player, yeah."

He crawled back out, mentally kicking himself for being so awkward all of the time. He turned the record player back on, not bothering to move the needle to restart the album, letting the music pick up where it left of. He heard the soft guitar of 'Soon You'll Get Better' and was reminded of his father, making a mental note to call him in the morning.

Kurt crawled back in the fort to find Blaine staring at the bottle of wine, chewing his lip. He looked in deep thought, which made Kurt even more nervous- and a bit confused.

Kurt went to grab the bottle, about to ask if Blaine wanted him to pour it when he felt a hand on his, halting his movements. "No, stop, sit down. I have something to say and you should probably sit down for it."

Kurt's stomach twisted but he obliged, unable to tear his eyes away from Blaine, still questioning the severity of the situation.

Blaine opened his mouth to speak before closing it again, trying to find a way to articulate his thoughts as carefully as possible. Once he gathered himself, he spoke lowly, making sure Kurt fully understood him. "Kurt, I- have you ever felt something so strongly for someone that it feels like you can't even breathe around them? Like they have this control over you that's so powerful that you can't even think straight?"

Kurt was frozen in place, his mind slipping into a place where he could only hear Blaine and the song in the background as it switched to 'False God'. He almost laughed at the sheer irony of it.

_We were crazy to think, crazy to think that this could work, remember how I said I'd die for you_

"I'm so, so thankful that this impossible situation gave you the chance to forgive me. We're friends again, and I love that." Blaine continued, locking eyes with Kurt in a purely intimate way.

_We were stupid to jump in the ocean separating us, remember how I'd fly to you_

"Even when we're fighting, or when you're just not talking to me, I realized that all I ever really want to do is be with you." Blaine inched closer so that their knees were touching, and he took Kurt's hand in his.

_And I can't talk to you when you're like this, staring out the window like I'm not your favorite town_

Kurt couldn't breathe. His body simply wasn't functional, his mind was blanking, and all he could see was the boy in front of him. He tried to piece together Blaine's words, but nothing made sense.

_I'm New York City, I'd still do it for you, babe_

"I know that none of this makes sense, especially since I have no idea how to say any of it. But over the past month or so, all I've wanted to do is just tell you how much you mean to me- tell you how much I feel for you."

_They all warned us about times like this_

Kurt's heart was beating out of his chest, his senses heightened and he felt so much at once He felt like he could die at any second. This wasn't really happening, was it?

Blaine moved in closer- impossibly closer. His face was right up next to Kurt's and he could hear every inhale and feel every exhale. A confident smile plays on Blaine's lips as he continues, "I know that I can't be the only one who feels it. I may be idiotic, but I'm not oblivious, love."

_They say the road gets hard and you get lost when you're led by blind faith_

He could barely find any air to breathe, but still managed to choke out a word into the silence between the two of them, barely above a whisper but it felt louder than anything he'd ever said before. "Blaine?"

_Blind faith_

In a gorgeously condescending tone, Blaine replied, "Kurt?"

_But we might just get away with it, religion's in your lips, even if it's a false god_

Kurt wasn't sure who leaned in first, he wasn't sure of anything anymore. But once he felt Blaine's lips crashing down on his, once he felt the gentle press of Blaine against him, he couldn't recall a single thing every feeling so right.

It was raw and pure, adorned with moments of gold and flashes of light. It was everything he never knew he needed but crave so desperately.

_We might just get away with it, the altar is my hips, even if it's a false god_

Blaine hadn't meant for it to go this far. He hadn't even planned to kiss him. But at some point, he began to run on autopilot and his body do all the work, letting his usually precautionary mind slip into it's own realm.

He didn't know how he ended up back in Kurt's lap, straddling his legs, but he sunk into the feeling of Kurt's hands on his hips. Blaine brought up a hand to fist in Kurt's hair, pulling him closer and kissing his deeper.

_We'd still worship this love_

They had no clue how much time had passed. They were lost in each other, clinging and desperate and wanting each other in every way possible, but it never went farther than where it was. They'd save something more for another day, but right now, having each other was just enough.

For a moment, Kurt pulled back from the kiss, panting lightly and taking in fresh air. Blaine's chest was heaving, out of breath and in need of a break, but he needed more, needed Kurt closer. So, in his fit of desperation, he pulled Kurt back in by the collar of his tshirt, whining when he felt Kurt run his fingers through his curls.

He was positive that nothing could ever beat this feeling. The final sendoff after weeks of hopeless pining. There was a thin line between love and hate, and though he wasn't sure when, Kurt was 100% sure that the had crossed it far long ago.

Kurt pulled back again, keeping a firm grip on Blaine's hip. He rested his forehead against Blaine's and exhaled shakily.

Blaine looked down and giggled, leaning into his touch in content. "It, uh... it must be something in the wine." He laughed, his voice sounding small and airy, making Kurt's heart swell. He truly was adorable.

He smiled and pressed a chaste kiss to Blaine's cheek, making the boy blush. "We haven't even had any yet, Bee."


	12. London Boy

The following morning, both Kurt and Blaine lie asleep in the fort, finally able to rest peacefully with no secrets weighing them down. They decided to leave any actual conversation to the next day, just to let the initial adrenaline wear off. Their night was speny wrapped in each other's arms, giggling and stealing kisses when the other wasn't looking as they watched Moulin Rouge on Kurt's laptop. Blaine reluctantly let Kurt turn the lights off, as long as he promised to hold him until he fell asleep. Soon, both boys drifted off into bliss.

Kurt was the first to wake up, confused as to why he was surrounded by bedsheets until he remembered where he was. He looked down to find Blaine wrapped in his arms, sleeping softly with his head nuzzled into Kurt's chest. He smiled to himself, thankful that last night hadn't been a beautifully cruel dream.

He reached around Blaine's sleeping figure to press a few keys on his computer, turning the screen on to check the time. Sighing, Kurt tried to sit up slowly, only to feel Blaine tighten his grip on him. He giggled and leant down, pressing a kiss to the top of Blaine's head. "Bee, c'mon, you have to wake up now."

Reluctantly, Blaine whined and let go, rolling over and pulling the blanket over his face. The taller boy just smiled and slowly pulled the blanket away, and he leant down to press another kiss to Blaine's lips, earning a surprised gasp from the boy under him.

"So I take it yesterday wasn't a dream?" Blaine asked groggily, letting a sleepy smile creep onto his face.

Kurt shook his head and brought a hand down to Blaine's hair, running his hands through the soft, unruly locks. "Not a dream, Bee."

Blaine hums in content and is about to fall back into a sleep filled state before he feels Kurt lean up and remove his hand. He groaned, torn between his own tiredness and wanting to be closer to Kurt.

He decides to sit up, fighting the urge to fall back onto the pillows. "Don't wanna get up, sleep is better, yep, I wanna sleep, I love sleep." Blaine says mindlessly, not leaving much depth behind his words.

"I know, Blaine, but you'll have to get up eventually." Kurt replies, trying to coax him out of his drowsiness.

Blaine frowned, his eyes still droopy from his sleepiness. "No, 's not my name."

Confused, Kurt raises an eyebrow at the boy in front of him. "It's not your name? Blaine?"

"Nope, not my name."

Kurt thought for a moment before saying, "Bee?"

Blaine smiles happily and nods, "Mhmm, better." He crawls over to the taller boy and wraps his arms around his neck, letting his body slump against Kurt's muscled frame. "That's my name now, yep."

They stay like that, in their most comfortable, close position, for a while in a warm silence- not awkward, and not too intense. Perfect. It goes without saying, but deep down a fire is igniting in the both of them, sparking and kindling the flames of something that neither of them had ever felt before. As they held each other, a realization washed over Blaine- he'd be content with spending the rest of his life like this. Something in him knew that, through hell or high water, he was hopelessly devoted to whatever they had started, and he'd make the most of it.

"Hey, love," Blaine started, catching Kurt's attention, "Are we gonna...um, like- talk about this? It's okay if you don't want to, I mean, just-"

"Honey, it's fine, I want to talk about it." Kurt cuts in, smiling inside at Blaine's flush from the petname. "But first, I want to ask if you'd-"

This time, Kurt was cut off by the loud ringing of his phone. It stopped almost as soon as it started, followed by two softer buzzes, and the ringing started again. Kurt groaned and let his head fall back against the cushion behind him, before sitting up and looking at Blaine with apologetic eyes. "That's probably Mercedes, I promised to call her yesterday."

Blaine waved a hand at him, signaling his approval. "It's fine. I'm gonna go get in the shower, let's just talk when you're done, yeah?" Kurt nodded, and Blaine turned to crawl out of the fort.

Behind him, he heard a faint, "Wait, c'mere". He turned around, gasping shortly when Kurt pulled him in for another kiss, this one lingering. "God, I'll never get tired of that. Okay, now, leave."

¤¤¤¤¤

With the sound of the running shower down the hall in the background, Kurt sits cross-legged in the fort on a group video call with Mercedes, Rachel, Santana and Brittany- who had been staying together at Brittany's parent's house-, and Tina, who popped into Mercedes' screen every so often. They constantly badgered him over all getting together for a call, and he gave in with the hope that it would end soon so he could talk to Blaine.

But that was thirty minutes ago, and Blaine was still in the shower, leaving Kurt to listen to Rachel go on and on about how much she missed singing for an audience. Naturally, Santana always had a slick joke, interrupting every few minutes to lovingly tell the them how obnoxious they all were- her way of showing how much she loved them. It almost felt normal, but Kurt couldn't focus on anything, his mind seeming far away, which Mercedes and Tina took notice of.

"Are you okay, Kurt? You're like... really out of it right now." Tina asks, and everyone looks at him quizzically when he nods.

"Oh no," Mercedes starts, in mock horror, "You didn't have se-"

"Don't finish that sentence, I will literally kill you." He cuts her off, face turning beet red. "And, no, I did not. That's like... no, that's gross and- no, I- I don't even, ugh just, no."

Santana is the first to laugh, and the rest follow. "Damn, Hummel, we're just teasing. We all know that you're too awkward to confess your undying love to Blaine without going into a gay panic, let alone letting him into your pants. But it's okay, we love you anyway."

"Have I ever told you how much I hate you guys." Kurt groans, rolling his eyes.

"Love you, too!" Brittany pipes up, happy and clueless as ever.

They all laugh once more and continue on with their conversation. Just as Tina gets into a story about how Mike and Sam have been getting closer, a loud "Babe, we need more soap, we're out!" is yelled from the bathroom.

Tina stops mid-sentence, and Kurt instantly stills, eyes wide and turning even redder than before. He was fully aware that the girls must have heard it, too, because each of them were also silent, staring at Kurt through their screens. He heard footsteps coming down the hall, and his eyes flickered between his laptop and the entrance of the fort, wondering how the hell he didn't hear the shower turn off.

Before he knows it, Blaine's head appears, looking a bit relieved. "Oh, I thought you were asleep again when you didn't respond, so I- Kurt, love, are you okay? You're kind of staring at your computer..." Blaine trails off, and once Kurt doesn't respond, he crawls in and scoots a bit closer to get a look at what Kurt's been staring at.

He freezes when he sees the faces of their friends peering at them, silent and gaping at their screens. "Oh shit."

"What did he just call you." Mercedes ask skeptically, taking her time with her words.

Kurt goes to shut his computer off before Rachel stops him, saying, "Don't you dare, Kurt Hummel, or I will personally fly back to New York and beat your ass." He looks to Blaine, who's just as flushed as he is, and slowly retracts his hand.

He takes a deep breath and starts, "Blaine kind of-"

All of the girls cut him of, demanding answers, and Blaine hears Mercedes and Tina call for Mike and Sam. When they arrive, the girls tell them what happened, and soon they're freaking out, too. Kurt and Blaine watch in horror as their friends rave about it, and Blaine then squeezes Kurt's hand and says, "Guys, shut the fuck up, please."

"I will not shut up, Blaine Anderson." Tina shrieks, eyes wide and full of excitement.

"I need to know when this happened," Rachel says, gesturing between the two.

Kurt just shrugs. "When _what_ happened?"

"Oh you know exactly what we're talking about, we all heard it." Santana spits, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

Blaine looks down at his hands, remembering exactly what happened. "It was yesterday," he mumbles, so low they can barely hear it.

"Well, it was technically last night." Kurt adds mindlessly.

Mercedes and Sam look at each other, then back at the camera, and Sam says, "Oh, god, dude, did you do it in our bed? Change the sheets, jesus christ."

"That's a mental image I'll never be able to get out of my head." Mike groans, planting his face onto Tina's shoulder.

"It's gross for you? I don't want to think about two dudes who are basically my exes doing it in my apartment." Sam shoots back, comically exasperated.

Kurt pipes up at that, "Exes?"

"Well, yeah," Sam starts, "Blaine wanted to do me senior year-"

"No I didn't"

"-And it was pretty obvious that you had a thing for me when we met. I mean, dude, you stalked me in the showers." He finishes, dismissing Blaine's comment.

Santana adds a "Wanky", making Brittany giggle beside her.

"But that doesn't make them your exes." Rachel states matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but I still think of them as exes. It's like, way easier. I'm pretty much open to anything anyway." The boy replies nonchalantly, making everyone quiet down for a moment.

"That's probably the least surprising thing to come out of this conversation." Tina says, turning to look at Sam standing behind her.

"Well," Santana says, "Looks like London Boy's got himself a boyfriend."

A surge of pride flows freely through Blaine and he smiles, grabbing Kurt's hand and scooting closer. "Yep, and he's absolutely gorgeous."

Kurt looks up at the boy, surprised at his words. "Boyfriend?"

He looks to Kurt sheepishly, nodding. "If that's something that you'd want, then I'd love it."

Kurt smiles and pulls the smaller boy into a hug, pressing a kiss to his cheek before pulling back with a confused look on his face. "Wait, I have two things to say. First of all, we didn't have sex in your bed. As much as I love you, Sam, I will kick your ass for saying that again." Sam throws up his hands defensively and backs up. "And, two, did you call him 'London Boy'?"

"Did he not tell you about when he went to Europe after graduation?" Tina asks.

"Um...no? I thought he was joking when he mentioned it." He turns to Blaine, who looks a bit embarrassed.

"C'mon guys, he doesn't really need to know about that..." Blaine says shortly, voice meek and low.

"Oh, hell no, he need to know everything. It's like, a right of passage." Mercedes laughs, leaving no room for arguments.

Sam, Tina, Mike, and Brittany- who all went on the trip with him- tell stories of Blaine's adventurous time in London, from perfecting his accent to getting kicked out of a pub when he was blackout drunk to quiet literally falling off of a double-decker bus. Each story ended in uncontrollable laughter from everyone, and soon turned into everyone throwing out random English stereotypes in the worst fake accents imaginable.

"Give us some stories from Uni, Blaine, I know you have 'em" Rachel choked out in between bursts of laughter.

"Rach, we literally go to the same school-"

"Is rugby an actual thing, or did foreign elves invent it cause they were too short for American sports?" Brittany asks, most likely 100 percent serious about her question, making Santana shake her head and explain it to her.

Blaine turns to Kurt, "I could probably take you some day, if you'd want."

Kurt smiled and cupped Blaine's cheek, leaning forward so that their foreheads were pressed up against one another. "Don't threaten me with a good time, Bee."

"You guys are so cute, it's literally disgusting." Tina says, looking at her friends in distaste.

Blaine, not moving his head, looks to the laptop, then back at Kurt, smiling as he leans in to press a kiss to the tip of his nose. Kurt wrinkles his nose and giggles when Blaine wraps his arms around him, letting his head fall onto the smaller man's chest. He mumbles into Blaine's chest sleepily, "God, I love the English." Blaine opens his mouth to protest, but decides against it, looking down on his boyfriend- he'll never get used to that- adoringly.

Sam, Mike, Santana, and Tina all make fake gagging noises at the couple, while the other three girls smile in awe at their cuteness. "I'm literally going to die, they're too adorable, it's maddening." Mike says, pretending to shield his eyes.

Blaine has one hand on Kurt's back, using his other hand to shoo the others away. "Go die somewhere else, I'm hanging up."

Sam pretend gags again. "Please don't have sex in my bed, I literally cannot handle that image in my mind." Mercedes rolls her eyes and hits him on the shoulder.

"No, but he looks sleepy," Blaine says, looking down at the boy in his arms. "Even though he's the one who forced me to wake up. Oh, Rach, tell Finn I said hi." He goes to hang up, before stopping to say, "I promise, we'll change the sheets this time." He hurries to hang up before anyone can respond. As soon as he does, both he and Kurt burst out into laughter.

"You can go to sleep if you want, I'll stay here." Blaine says to Kurt, who already looked like he was drifting off. The boy just nods weakly in response.

He hums the first song that comes to mind, letting out actual words every so often. Towards the end, he sings, "Darling, I fancy you" in a soft tone.

Kurt pops his head up, grinning. "Like the song?"

Blaine nods and continues rubbing his boyfriend's back. "Like the song."


	13. The Archer

They should have known that the honeymoon period wouldn't last long. Nothing ever did, and this peace was far too good to be true. With their track record, bad times were bound to be expected, but no one could have foreseen this.

Things had been going smoothly between Kurt and Blaine, basking in the euphoric glow of being together- being boyfriends. Their friends were happy for them, though Santana had threatened Blaine a few times after their initial announcement, saying that the razor blades in her hair would come into full effect if he ever hurt Kurt. It was supposed to be smooth sailing from here on, or at least a few more weeks until the novelty wore off. It was supposed to last.

Some things, perhaps, were built to be broken.

¤¤¤¤¤

Almost three weeks after their decision to become official, Kurt and Blaine both lie in bed, the shorter sleeping softly on Kurt's chest while he ran his fingers through his curls. A lot of their time was spent like this, sleepily curled up in bed, lounging around with nothing better to do. Domesticity hadn't been their style before, but it had become ingrained in their daily routine, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

Kurt wasn't sure when he drifted off, but he could tell that not much time had passes when he felt Blaine shaking him awake. He tried to lean in for a kiss, but his eyes shot open when Blaine pushed him away. "Wha-"

"Who's Adam?" Blaine asks, sounding small and hurt. Kurt notices that he's holding his phone, opened to his texts.

"Why are you going through my phone?" Kurt retorts, avoiding the question.

Blaine grip on the phone tightens as he scrolls through more messages. "I'm not going through your phone, but it keeps buzzing because Adam won't stop texting you." He turns to face Kurt and recites, mockingly, "'Oh god, babe, I miss you so much', 'I wish you were here right now'."

"Give me that." He says, trying to take his phone back, but Blaine jerks away and continues.

"'Just leave him and we can be together again, you know that he's just a rebound'?", His voice cracks, laced with hurt and suspicion. "I mean, I've never even heard of this guy before, Kurt, who the fuck is this? And why are you entertaining his bullshit?"

Kurt stands up in front of the boy and manages to snatch his phone away. "Calm down, psycho. Adam literally means nothing to me anymore."

"Okay," Blaine says, backing towards the wall, "Then who the hell is he?"

"He's just a guy that I used to hang out with. We went on a few dates, but it didn't go anywhere- we're still friends. He just jokes like that sometimes, that's all." Kurt lies. There's much more to the story of he and Adam's relationship, but as he watches Blaine's expression soften, he decides that it'd be best if he didn't tell the rest of the story.

Blaine's angered expression falls into one of regret, and he walks back over to Kurt, taking his boyfriend's hands in his. "Oh, love, I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me, I should have just asked. I'm sorry."

The taller throws him a tight lipped smile and nods. "It's okay, Bee, you couldn't have known." Kurt has no idea why he feels so guilty, he didn't necessarily do anything wrong. A few white lies never hurt anyone, and the entire situation with Adam was something that he could handle himself- Blaine didn't really need to know.

"No, I shouldn't have just assumed the worst. I didn't mean to yell, I'm just scared t-" Blaine is cut off by Kurt's lips on his, soft and gentle, and he melts into it, pulling back only a few seconds later.

"It's okay, Blaine, I promise." Kurt reassures, squeezing Blaine's hands once, pushing down that unmistakable feeling of dread that was threatening to crawl up inside of him. 

Blaine nodded, smiling weakly and pulling Kurt into a tight embrace. "Okay."

¤¤¤¤¤

"So how are things with you and Hummel?" Santana's voice rings out through the bedroom from Blaine's phone, which was thrown next to him on the bed. He had sent Kurt out to buy another comically large container of Red Vines, and Blaine had somehow gotten bored almost as soon as his boyfriend walked out of the door. Thankfully, Santana called him a while later, saying that she needed someone new to talk to besides Brittany and her crazy family. 

Sprawled out on the bed and staring up at the ceiling, Blaine thought for a moment before answering the question. "Actually, we're doing pretty good. I mean, I think we are. I would hope so."

"Well are you not sure?" Santana asks, sounding much less sarcastic than she did previously.

Blaine huffed, bringing up a hand to fiddle with his curls the way he did when he was anxious about something. No, I'm sure. It's just, like... today was kinda weird I guess."

"Weird how?"

"There was, uh, this guy texting Kurt. I don't know, I guess I just got upset about it, it's nothing. The guy's name was Adam, I think." Blaine is cutting off by a piercing shriek and a noise of disapproval from his friend. 

"Adam? That manipulative little _st_ _alker?_ Oh my god, Kurt's still in contact with him?" Santana exclaims, more to herself than Blaine, but he responds anyway.

"Um, what do you mean? Kurt said they were friends..." He trails off, more confused now than ever.

"Yeah, they were friends _two years ago_ before Adam went batshit crazy. They dated for an entire year before he cheated on Kurt and broke things off. They were on and off for a few months because Adam kept manipulating Kurt into believing he loved him, it was like Stockholm Syndrome or something." She hesitated for a moment before saying, "He kept showing up at Rachel's apartment looking for him, and would constantly be lurking around the dorms at NYADA. He even made Kurt take him with him when he and Rachel went to visit Quinn up in New Haven last year. Kurt always said it was fine, but we all knew what was up. I just... I thought that the last time they broke up would have been the last time they'd talk." She sounded sincere, and almost as confused as Blaine was. As much as he didn't want to believe it, he knew she wouldn't lie about something like that.

Blaine had no idea that any of this even happened, he had only jut heard of Adam today. Kurt told him that everything was fine, that they were friends and the oddly insistent, flirty texts were just jokes between friends. 

Kurt didn't... lie to him, right?

_Oh no._

"Uh, Santana, I gotta go." Blaine rushed out, not giving her enough time to respond. 

"Wait, Bla-" He cut her off by ending the call and shutting his phone off. Blaine tried to lie down on the bed and think of any rational reason Kurt would lie to him about something like this, but nothing made sense. 

Blaine knew that there was a possibility that this wasn't even about him, but nothing could stop the anger from bubbling up inside of him. He couldn't tell if the anger was directed toward Kurt for lying or at himself for being dumb enough to believe it. Those texts, they should have been the first sign, the way Kurt stammered when answering his questions. _He was planning to go back to Adam, wasn't he?_

When Kurt walked back into the apartment, Blaine didn't hear the door swing open or the soft jingling of keys when they were set on the kitchen counter. He didn't hear his name being called down the hall, or the light padding of Kurt's footsteps tracing down the hall and towards the bedroom. He didn't notice the bedroom door creaking open, or Kurt popping his head in to ask if he was alright. The first time he acknowledged his boyfriend's presence in the room is when he crawled into bed next to him and laid his head on Blaine's stomach. "You okay, Bee?"

Blaine jerked, startling himself out of his thoughts. A hundred thrown out speeches came flooding back to him, all different ways to confront Kurt about everything Santana had told him, but one look at the bright blue eyes peering up at him sent him spiraling, and he decided to give it more time. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He winced at the obvious strain on his voice, but hoped that Kurt didn't notice.

Kurt just looked up at him quizzically and nodded slowly, still suspicious of the way he was acting but deciding not to push it. "Okay... well, I picked up Chinese while I was out, you up to eat?"

When the taller stood up, Blaine forced a smile. "Um, yeah." He said, rolling out of the other side of the bed and leaving his phone on top of the sheets.

After about half an hour, Kurt noticed that Blaine was still acting... off. He only picked at his food and responded to Kurt's attempts at conversation with grunts and one-word answers. 

Sighing, Kurt set down his fork and looked at Blaine, who suddenly seemed to be staring intensely back at him. "Blaine, can you tell me what's wrong? You've been acting weird since I got back did something happen?" He tries to grab a hold of the smaller's hands, but Blaine jerks away slightly before focusing his gaze back on the plate. 

"Do you remember that day, when we were building the fort? You asked me if I trusted you." Blaine asks, sounding small and tired. It sounded more rhetorical, but Kurt nods anyway. Blaine finally looks up at him, and Kurt's stomach twists in knots at the look on his face. "Don't you trust me, Kurt?" In any other situation, he would have immediately answered, rushing to shower Blaine with all of the affection he could handle, but all he could do now was nod again. Kurt had no idea where the conversation was going, but he could feel that it wasn't going to be good. 

Blaine picked up his fork and shoveled around the food on his plate, letting the silence fall over them once again. Without looking up or stopping his movements, he asks, "When were you going to tell me about Adam?"

Kurt visibly relaxes and smiles sweetly. "Oh, honey, we talked about it this morning, remember?" He says, grabbing both of their plates and bringing them over to the trash can by the door, wanting the conversation to be over.

"You lied, though, Kurt. I'm not stupid."

He stopped in his tracks, his back to Blaine as his stomach dropped. "Blaine, I-"

"Actually, apparently I _was_ dumb enough to believe you. I had to get the truth from Santana of all people." Blaine says, cutting Kurt off. He gets up and walks toward his boyfriend, who turns around to face him. "When were you going to tell me that you guys were together for almost _two years?_ Or that he's fucking insane?"

"NO, I- I didn't think that it mattered." Kurt stammers, eyes wide and face as pale as a sheet.

"You didn't think it _mattered_? What the hell is that even supposed to mean? It doesn't matter, Kurt, you lied to me." Blaine exclaimed. Part of him knew that he was overreacting again, but he couldn't make himself care. 

Kurt blinked at his boyfriend for a while before going into full defense mode. "I don't know what Santana told you, but it wasn't her story tell in the first place. It's not like it was important, anyway."

"It wasn't important?" Blaine threw his head back and let out a shrill laugh. "Are you kidding me? Did you not think it was important for me to know shit like this, Kurt? I'm you boyfriend for god's sake, isn't that supposed to mean something?"

The taller scoffed and pushed past Blaine. "Let's see how that turns out." As soon as he realizes what came out of his mouth, he turns to Blaine apologetically. "Bl-"

"Wow, okay. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?" Blaine spits, seeming far calmer than he just was, only further signifying his anger. 

Though he wanted the arguing to stop, just wanted to be wrapped in Blaine's arms and act like this entire conversation didn't happen, Kurt turns back around and grab his keys off of the kitchen counter. "I'm not doing this right now, Blaine."

"Why?"

In his mind, in burning red letters, all he could think of was _Because I hate fighting with you. Because I think I love you,_ but all he could get out was "I'll be back later, call me when you calm the hell down."

"Did you forget that we're not supposed to leave? That's the entire reason we're here, isn't it?" Blaine says sarcastically, and Kurt can almost _taste_ the dignified bitchiness radiating off of him.

"I can't be in here with you right now. I don't want to argue with you either, not now." Blaine watched as Kurt grabbed his coat and walked towards the door, and something inside of him burst, opening the floodgates and letting every wounded emotion flow back out before he could stop himself. Cruelty win in the movies, right?

"Oh, let me guess, you're going to go see _Adam_? I mean, that's what he was telling you to do, right?" Blaine says, more of a statement than a question. 

Kurt rolls his eyes and goes for the doorknob. "Grow up, Blaine, I really don't want to fight with you-"

Everything in him is telling Blaine to stop, to hold back and just let Kurt leave, but there's a malicious nagging in the back of his mind that wants to leave a mark. "I need to grow up, Kurt? You're the one leaving again, just like you did in high school. _You_ never grew up from that scared little boy who runs away from his problems, and it's getting so old."

Blaine was never one to fully understand the impact of his words, but as soon as he catches sight of his boyfriend's face, all glassy blue eyes and angry red cheeks, every bit of hurt seeps out of him and into an imaginary puddle on the floor for the word to see his building shame. Kurt looked absolutely _destroyed,_ and Blaine's heart fell from his chest when he realized what he said. Something in him wanted this reaction, wanted this to _hurt,_ but Blaine knew better than to play with fire for too long. "Kurt, I didn't mean-"

Blaine is cut off by something he hadn't heard in months. It's utter simplicity made the intent behind it sting even worse. Something as small and mundane could only be seen as a cheap, childish quip, but Blaine could feel the anger it burned with.

As Kurt opened the door, he turned to Blaine with his voice thick from the lump in his throat, muttering, " _Fuck you, Anderson"_ and slamming the door shut behind him, leaving Blaine alone in the screaming silence of the apartment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot to say this earlier, but there will be mentions of sex and stuff in this. there already has been some, but i just wanted to say that im wlw, and i dont feel comfortable writing smut thats about mlm, especially since a lot of my mlm friends have expressed their distaste for mlm smut written by non mlm people. so no smut in this, sorry


	14. Death By A Thousand Cuts

He knew it wasn’t a pretty sight. Parked in the far corner of the IHOP parking lot, sobbing his brains out, right down the street from the apartment he _just_ left, Kurt knew that he looked a mess. He just couldn’t find the right mind to care. 

Kurt couldn’t even remember the last time they had an argument that bad since the day they went up to the roof. 

The roof, where Kurt initially headed after he left the apartment. He only got halfway up the stairs before turning around, because all he could think of was Blaine, and he didn’t want to think about him at all right now. He tried to go to Target, deciding that he could just get all of their grocery shopping done while he was out, but as he passed the Vinyl and CD section, he felt his eyes welling up with tears at the memory of how happy they were the first time they were here together. He saw Blaine everywhere, making New York feel much smaller than it was. 

Kurt had no idea why he was so emotional over this, it’s not like they broke up. He was just so _hurt,_ and it only amplified every emotion he felt at the moment. He was so angry when he left, all he wanted to do was be alone, which is how he ended up pulling into the IHOP parking lot, figuring it was the best place since it was so empty.

He let his head fall against the steering wheel and sat there, in complete silence while his mind went over what had just happened. Everything Blaine said to him came rushing back and he broke down, feeling equally guilty and betrayed. On one hand, he _had_ lied to Blaine about something that was extremely important, and he had every right to be upset about it. But on the other hand, Blaine had absolutely no reason to say any of that to him, especially not anything about high school. He knew it was a sore area, but he chose to strike that nerve anyway. That was something Kurt simply couldn’t wrap his head around. 

Sitting alone in his car, Kurt searched his heart for a part that Blaine didn’t take up, something that he could hold onto. When he couldn’t he huffed, wiping his face with the backs of his hands and fixing his hair in the rear-view mirror. Starting the car again, he pulled out of the parking lot and tried to think of a rational explanation for everything. Relationships were like rose gardens, and he hoped that this was just one of the thorns they’d encounter. That maybe this was just a paper cut sting that resulted from their paper-thin plans to do whatever the hell they wanted with no repercussions. Everything would have to be okay, right?

Once he stopped at a red light, he groaned and looked up, leaning his head against the headrest. Kurt looked out the window at the buildings around him, all of the other cars, and even the traffic lights, asking if it’ll be alright, searching for some type of answer that would give him some kind of relief. But he just couldn’t forgive Blaine that easily, he can’t pretend it’s okay when it’s not. 

He takes the long way home.

¤¤¤¤¤

In the living room, Blaine flinched when he heard the front door swing open and the sound of Kurt throwing his keys onto the counter. He quickly stood up, walking towards the kitchen so he could talk to him, but after about three steps, he heard Kurt’s heavy footsteps stomping down the hall, and stopped in his tracks when he heard the bedroom door slam closed. Fuck.

He deserved it, he knew he did. Time after time, he promised Kurt that he wouldn’t ever hurt him again, and time after time, he did. Only this time, Blaine did it on purpose. 

Blaine knew that it was more than the silent treatment, but he wished that Kurt would just come back and be _mad._ He held everything in all of the time, Blaine just wanted him to come back and yell at him, tell him how bad he fucked up this time, tell him that he couldn’t be forgiven this time because that’s what he _deserved._ Kurt had to be mad at him if he wouldn’t even talk to him, right? He just needed to know. 

The apartment was quiet, far too quiet for comfort, and the silence felt more suffocating than the reason behind it, and it took everything in him not to walk down the hall and into the bedroom. He knew that that wasn’t what Kurt needed right now, so he’d just have to refrain. As the day went on and came to a close, Blaine checked the time every three minutes, waiting to see if Kurt would come back out to talk to him. Though he was angry at him for lying, all of that anger had faded already. It had only been a few hours, but he missed him too much to be mad anymore. 

¤¤¤¤¤

He must have dozed off at some point, because Kurt wakes up around 2 am from a dream about the first time he and Blaine met. Not remembering the events from the previous day, he reaches across the bed, expecting to find Blaine in bed next to him. When he doesn’t, his tired mind just assumes Blaine went up to use the bathroom, so he rolls over and goes right back to sleep. 

The next time he wakes up, around 5 am, he comes out of a dream about his junior year of high school. It was more of a flashback, right to when Rachel sat him down in the choir room and told him everything she had been hearing about him. He woke up curled in on himself, and this time when he reached for Blaine, Kurt remembered what went down the day before. 

He wakes up around 10 am for the last time, from a dream that seemed so real that he could have sworn it happened. In the dream, he watched himself and Blaine have the same argument as they did yesterday, only this time, he was outside of his own body, looking through the boarded up windows of their love and unable to stop it. When the morning comes, Kurt doesn’t bother to reach for Blaine. He knows he won’t be there.

Kurt lies in bed for a while, just staring up at the ceiling with his arms clasped tightly over his stomach. His head jerks towards the door when he hears footsteps in the hall, and he realizes that it must mean that Blaine’s awake, too. Kurt rolls his eyes when he hears the bathroom door swing open and closed, and the shower turns on a few minutes later. He takes the opportunity to get out of bed and find something to eat, but stops once his phone rings. _Of course it’s him._

He picks up his phone and answers the call, bringing it close to his ear. “What do you want, Adam?” He hears a laugh and rolls his eyes again, already ready to hang up. 

“Wow, I’ve been trying to call you for weeks, this is new.” Adam responds, his amusement not hidden in his voice. 

“Just tell me what the hell you want.” Kurt snaps, not feeling in the mood to deal with his bullshit today. 

Adam ignores him and continues the pestering, mostly to entertain himself. “Ooh, someone’s got quite the attitude, let me guess, your little boy toy break your pretty little heart again?”

Kurt sucks in a breath of surprise. “How the hell- No. I’m hanging up.”

“Hey, I’m just saying, if you ever want someone who can _actually_ love you, I’m the only one in my apartment. You already know how… big it is, you should stay here, love.” Kurt winced at the pet name, as it was something that he was so used to Blaine calling him. He would say that he was impressed at Adam’s bluntness, but he was used to it after two and a half years of dealing with it. 

“I’m not going back, get over yourself.” Kurt hangs up, feeling more drained from that one conversation than he had in weeks. He hears someone clear their throat behind him and he jumps before turning around to see Blaine leaning on the door frame, his curls drenched in water and dripping down the back of his shirt. 

“Who, um- who was that?” He asks tentatively, not sure if right now was a good time to try and talk to him.

Despite his brain and heart telling him to just  _ talk to him,  _ Kurt scoffs and walks past Blaine, headed toward the kitchen. “Why do you care?” He hears Blaine following behind him, but ignores him. 

“Um, because I’m your boyfriend?” The shorter says, a bit unsure of what Kurt means. 

Kurt giggles to himself, and he knows he’s being unnecessarily cold, but the part of him that was so hurt yesterday- and still is- is bigger than any sympathetic part. “Oh, well where was that attitude yesterday, huh?”

He turns around and sees Blaine shifting uncomfortably behind him, and his resolve almost melts at the look of regret and desperation on his face-  _ almost.  _ “Look, Kurt, I’m sorry. I really, really am, and I know that it doesn’t make up for anything but-”

“If you know it doesn’t make up for anything, then why are you even trying. I mean, seriously, Blaine, what are we even doing here?” Kurt snaps, before even realizing what he’s saying. He doesn’t mean it, he knows he doesn’t, but he has to make something hurt as much as what Blaine said to him yesterday.

He feels a pang surge through his heart when a flash of hurt washed across Blaine’s face. “What… what is that supposed to mean?”

“Whatever you want it to mean, Blaine.” 

Kurt watches as he shrinks in on himself, and then Blaine turns around, walking out of the kitchen. He comes back a minute later with a coat and his keys, stooping at the front door to turn to Kurt. “I’m going to the roof, I’ll be up there if you need something, but I doubt that you will.” Before he knows it, Blaine’s out the door.

Standing alone in the kitchen, he wonders what just happened, and then laughs despite himself at the fact that he seems to wonder about that quite often these days. Sighing, he trudged back to the bedroom and let himself fall back on the bed, back to the position he woke up in, staring blankly at the ceiling. Training his eyes on a spot on the wall he can’t get his mind off of Blaine. Everything, the good and the bad, all just add to the reasons he’s slowly falling in love with him, and the pain of that hurts more than anything. And with what happened yesterday, he’s not sure he can handle it anymore. 

After a bit of internal conflict, he rolls over to pat around on the bed for his phone. He picks it up, debating on whether this was a good idea, and then decides to just go for it. 

**Kurt:**

Is it the same address?

He sits anxiously as a few minutes pass, and he thinks about how pissed Rachel and Santana would be if they knew what he was about to do. He feels bad, but he genuinely can’t stay here, not like this. 

**Adam:**

So you’ve finally taken my offer?

**Adam:**

And yes, it’s the same. Come over tomorrow at 3?

**Kurt:**

I’ll be there.


	15. Cornelia Street

Kurt hadn’t expected Adam to reply so soon, so he didn't have enough time to figure out how he wanted to leave. Right now, Blaine was still supposedly up on the roof, so he could have enough time to fill up the two duffel bags with clothes until he could come back for the rest of the boxes. It’s not that he was avoiding Blaine, he just didn’t want to have to face him on the way out, because he knew that it would only make him want to stay. 

Fine, he may have been avoiding Blaine.

Pulling himself out of bed, Kurt stalks over to the closet, opening the door and pulling out the two duffel bags inside. He goes to one of the drawers and pulls out clothes at random, not really caring what he gets, just as long as it’s enough to last a few weeks until he can come back for the rest. He really wasn’t sure when he was coming back, but he knew that if he actually left, he’d wouldn’t be able to walk Cornelia Street for a long while, not with Blaine here. Part of him didn’t even want to leave, but he couldn’t take another let down from someone he loved so much. 

Love. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it?

Only a few months ago, Kurt was sitting in this exact same bedroom, wondering how he could get out of a horrible situation with someone he hated so much. Today, he was doing the exact same thing, but the feeling of hatred was quickly replaced by the bitter reality of loving someone, and it felt worse than it did when he hated him. Kurt really wished he could just go back to hating him. Blaine was just so… Blaine, and that’s exactly what he loved so much. But love and trust don’t go hand in hand with one another, and Kurt didn’t trust Blaine enough to be sure that something like this wouldn’t happen again. That's what relationships are about, right? Trust. Kurt didn’t have it in him to trust Blaine.

Once he finished packing, he rushed downstairs to put the bags in his car, willing the elevator to move faster. He got back to the apartment just in time, because as soon as he made it back to the bedroom, he heard Blaine coming through the door and slamming it shut behind himself. Kurt knew that he should have told Blaine about him leaving, but he wasn’t even sure if they were broken up. Their relationship started… odd, but everything seemed so new that they never thought to think anything out. They were a blank slate, a fresh page, filling in the blanks as they went on, and somehow, they messed it up, so Kurt only had two choices. He could have taken the lesser of two evils, but he knew that it could only cause more pain. It was what he had to do. 

¤¤¤¤¤

When the early morning came, Kurt lied in bed, unable to do anything but let his brain run wild, fighting himself to figure out the pros and cons of leaving. On one hand, he wouldn’t have to deal with the constant yelling and fighting, or anymore hurtful words that would inevitably slip from their minds and out of their mouths. But on the other, slightly larger, heavier and more prominent hand that had been weighing him down for days, he’d be leaving Blaine- for good this time- and he wasn’t sure he wanted to do that. He wasn’t sure of anything. 

Sighing, he rolled out of bed, figuring that during the time it’d take him to get showered and dressed, he’d have his mind made already. 

His shower was quick, and Kurt threw on sweatpants and a plain black shirt, not bothering to fix his hair up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his old McKinley High hoodie, the one he gave to Blaine. Kurt walked over to the dresser where it sat upon and took it in his hands, but figured that he wouldn’t take it, Blaine would wear it more than he ever would. 

The apartment was quiet, an uncomfortable silence that Kurt used to let himself revel in now felt heavy, weighing down on him and making the reality of his situation all the more clear. There were other options, he was sure that there were, but nothing in his mind made more sense than simply leaving, even if it meant everything with Blaine would be left behind in this apartment. Kurt was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the bathroom door closing, and he heard the shower start, meaning that Blaine would be in there for at least fifteen minutes. Now was his chance, he could leave without having to face Blaine, which would probably be the best, for the both of them.

He got out of bed and grabbed his phone, making sure to shut the door behind him when he left the room. Walking into the kitchen was a struggle in itself, seeing Blaine’s phone and set of keys on the counter next to his sending a pang through his chest. Kurt grabbed his keys anyway, and leaned against the counter to twist the two house keys off of the chain. He played with them in his hand for a while, remembering the first day he showed up at the apartment and saw Blaine, and smiled to himself. Somehow, they were back where they started, only the feeling there wasn’t hatred, but it burned much worse. 

Kurt took one last look around before setting the keys down on the counter and walking toward the door, only opening it after taking one more look behind him, and stepped out, shutting the door softly. With his bags packed, he left Cornelia Street before Blaine even knew he was gone, knowing he’d never walk it again. 

Kurt drove around the block a few times, not sure if now was a good time to leave. The sound of a horn honking behind him pushed him forward, and he drove about five blocks away from the apartment building. In front of him, his eyes landed on Stonewall Inn, which was only right down the street. Kurt laughed to himself, then decided to pull over. Biting his lip in concentration, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, unlocking it and dialing the number of someone he had been meaning to talk to for a while. He waited while the phone rang, once, twice, and then three times before hearing a gruff voice come through the static sounding line. Kurt smiled. “Hey, Dad.”

¤¤¤¤¤

Almost as soon as Kurt left, Blaine came trudging out of the bathroom, wearing only a pair of black jeans, as he forgot to get a shirt before going to shower. Upon stepping into the hallway, something felt off, but he brushed it off, assuming it was just the tension that had been fogging the air between him and Kurt for days. It still felt quieter than usual, even though Kurt wasn’t talking to him, he could still hear the faint sound of the record player Kurt moved into the bedroom or him watching a movie on his computer. 

Shrugging, he went straight for the kitchen, figuring that walking around shirtless wouldn’t bother Kurt if he saw it- it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. Blaine noticed that the kitchen seemed _emptier,_ and his eyes wandered over to the counter, where his set of keys were sitting next to Kurt’s. He squinted at them, feeling like something was missing, and moved closer, picking them up in his hand before realizing that only his _house keys_ were there. Weird, but Blaine brushed that off, too, thinking that Kurt must’ve gone to the store before he woke up. But Blaine had been in the kitchen before he went to shower, and Kurt would never leave just his house keys, especially not now. 

He looked around suspiciously before walking back down the hall, stopping once he got to the bedroom to knock on the door softly. “Kurt?” Blaine knew that he probably wouldn’t get a response, but he didn’t want to startle the boy. He knocked once more before pushing the door open, and was hit with an overwhelming sense of emptiness, and noticed that the bed was made perfectly, which it almost never was when Kurt slept in it himself. Blaine walked closer and saw his McKinley hoodie, folded up perfectly and lying on the corner of the bed. 

Slowly, he picked it up and held it close, before setting it down and turning his head to the side, where he saw that one of the dresser drawers was left open. Blaine went to close it, but stopped his hand when he saw that it was empty. Worriedly, he opened every drawer that had been previously filled, only to find those void, also. He rushed over to the closet and opened the door, seeing that the duffel bags Kurt had stuffed in there were gone, and he turned around, walking back over to the bed as the pieces slowly clicked in his head. The missing keys, the unusual silence, the perfectly made bed, empty drawers and closet. It all became clear, but Blaine couldn’t believe it. 

Blaine picked up the hoodie and slid it one, feeling comforted by the feeling of the soft material on his bare skin. Sitting in silence, he tried to figure out what was going on. Blaine was aware that Kurt was pissed at him, and he had every right to be, but he had no idea that it would come to this point. He didn’t actually… leave him, right? 

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing, and he looked around frantically before realizing that it was in his pocket. Blaine pulled it out and looked at the Caller ID, sighing once he saw that it was Santana. He answered, but before he could even put it to his ear, he heard her yelling at him through the speaker. “You have ten seconds, Anderson, tell me what the hell you did.”

He looked around in confusion before opening his mouth, his voice straining with the force of the lump in his throat, the one that probably showed up with the tears he hadn’t even noticed. “ He left, Santana, he fucking left. I, um, we got in this really bad argument, and I don’t- wait, how do you know that something happened?”

“Because Mercedes just called me, saying that Kurt was on his way to his damn _exes_ place because he apparently couldn’t stay there anymore.” She responds, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Blaine looks a bit perplexed for a moment before asking, “Are you fucking kidding me? Wait, who told her?”

“Sam.” She responds, her voice quieting down a bit. 

“Who told him?”

“Finn.” Really?

“Who told him?”

“Kurt’s _dad._ ”

“Who told- Oh wait, it was Kurt, wasn’t it?”

Santana huffs and rolls her eyes. “That’s not important, Blaine. I need to know what the hell you did. Actually, no, that’s none of my business. All I know is that he’s on his way over to Adam’s apartment, so you need to fucking do something. Have you even tried calling him?”

Blaine sucks in a huge breath of relief, then feels extremely dumb, because _why the hell didn’t he think of doing that in the first place_? Without another word, he hangs up on Santana, scrolling through his contacts before clicking on Kurt’s number, waiting anxiously as he listens to the phone ring. 

When he hears a slight shuffling sound on the other side, he lets out a huge sigh of relief. “Um, Kurt?”

A few moments pass before he hears a small “Yeah?”

“Oh, god, Kurt, where are you? Why’d you go?” He stutters out a jumble of words, not sure if any of it actually registers over the phone. 

“I’m about to hit the Hudson Tunnel, Blaine. Why are you calling me?” Kurt asks, not wanting to say too much in fear of breaking down. It’s not like it was a lie, Adam lives just on the other side of the tunnel, all he has to do is cross and he’s never turning back. 

“Kurt, baby, please, just- I’m so, so sorry. Please come back to me, I don’t want to lose you. I know that I fucked up pretty bad, and I don’t- I hope I never lose you. I don’t want this to end, Kurt, I’m so sorry.” Blaine is openly crying by the end, and he can barely contain himself when Kurt speaks next. 

“Just… wait for me.” The line goes dead, and Blaine is left to figure out what the hell he meant by that. 

For twenty minutes, Blaine sits in silence, staring at the wall, before he gets up and heads for the roof figuring that Kurt meant that he wasn’t coming back. As he leaves, he wipes his face with the back of his hand, not knowing that Kurt turned back around long before he hit the tunnel. 


	16. Afterglow

He really didn’t plan to go back up to the roof. The sunset was gorgeous tonight, sure, but he planned to go straight into the apartment. Blaine sounded absolutely destroyed on the phone, all Kurt wanted to do was go inside and make everything better. But there was one problem: He didn’t have his keys. 

So, when he realized this as he pulled his car into the parking lot, he rolled his eyes in frustration and took the stairs all of the way to the top floor. Kurt pushed the door open, and he stepped out onto the roof, half expecting to find Blaine already up there waiting for him. He wasn’t too disappointed when he wasn’t there, because he knew that Blaine would come to find him eventually. He always did. 

Kurt took a few steps out, towards the ledge, and looked out towards the sky- it looked exactly the way it did the first time Blaine brought him up here. Colors swirling around and highlighting the sparse clouds, the city skyline outlined with the gold light from the sun. Kurt thought back to that day, and thought about how it must have been the day he began feeling something for Blaine, something bigger than hatred, bigger than the friendship they managed to rekindle- something beautiful, too  _ gorgeous  _ and authentic to handle alone. He didn’t have to handle it alone, right from the day in the pillow fort, Kurt knew that it wouldn’t be handled alone, that Blaine would be right there beside him, trying to figure things out himself, too.

Only now, Blaine wasn’t next to him. He was somewhere downstairs, waiting for Kurt to walk through the doors so he could apologize and promise that it’d never happen again. Kurt knew that he was sorry, he knew it from the moment that it happened, he just wasn’t able to forgive Blaine that easily, he had to understand that. Kurt wished that there was no such thing as internal conflict. He had been battling with himself for the past three days, going back and forth in his head trying to figure out how he managed to break what he loved so much, and he didn’t know what to blame. But at this point, Kurt didn’t care- he was ready for it all to be over. 

Kurt huffs as he stares out at the city skyline. He wondered how it could be so beautiful when everything felt so… wrong. Then, he heard the door swing open behind him, and a breath of relief, signifying Blaine’s arrival. Kurt fought the urge to turn around, and kept staring out at the sky as if he wasn't even there, training his eyes on a bird that landed on a power line across the street from the building.

“You came back?” Blaine asks, and Kurt can hear the desperation in his voice. Blaine tentatively walks towards him and stops when they’re only about a foot apart. He waits for Kurt to turn around, but a few moments pass and he doesn’t, making Blaine frown and gaze at him sadly. “Kurt, I am so, so sorry that I hurt you. I didn’t mean… I know that I shouldn’t have said any of that. I blew things out of proportion, and I was just so upset about the entire situation that I lashed out, and I shouldn’t have done that to you. You didn’t deserve that, and I love-” He cuts himself off, not wanting to go too far in such a fragile moment. “Just don’t go, please, I don’t want to lose this with you. You are more important to me than anything, Kurt.”

Kurt is silent for a few minutes, reveling in the silence as he makes Blaine wait for his response. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Blaine walk up next to him, staring at him intently. Without turning his head, Kurt begins to speak, soft and low. “What do you think it’s like to fly for the first time? I mean, here you are, up in this nest, the only home you’ve ever known. Even though your DNA and hundreds of years of evolution is telling you that if you jump, you won’t hit the ground, you can never really know. Relationships are like that. You give someone your heart to look after and you tell yourself that you’re safe, but you never know if today or tomorrow is gonna be the day that they drop it like a stone.”

Standing next to him, Blaine’s eyes are welling up with tears. “Kurt, I’m really, really, really sorry.” His voice cracks with each word, and by the end, his voice is barely above a whisper.

Kurt finally turns to him and watches his boyfriend’s face soften. He notices that Blaine’s wearing the McKinley hoodie Kurt gave him, and he smiles inside at how small he looks in it. “I get what happened. For four years, we hated each other. I hated you for what happened, and you hated me for abandoning you. We can’t just… expect all of that anger and resentment to fade away after just a few months of living with each other. And if you’d have… lied to me about something like that, I would’ve said the same thing.”

“I don’t understand, if you’re not mad at me, then where are you going with all of this flying stuff?” Blaine asks, looking up at the taller expectantly. 

Kurt smiles a bit and takes Blaine’s hands in his. “Oh, no, I- I was mad. But then I realized that trust is a choice. Every day, we’re gonna roll out of bed and send each other into the world, just trusting that we have each other’s backs. And we will slip up and we will get scared, and get angry, and even say some really hurtful things, but I choose to trust and to  _ love you,  _ through everything.”

Blaine- who was staring down at where their hands were intertwined- snaps his head up at Kurt’s word. He blinks at him a few times before smiling, bright and wide, and his eyes crinkle up, letting a few tears escape.”You… you love me?”

“Blaine-”

He cut Kurt off by engulfing him in the tightest hug imaginable, having to lean up on his tiptoes, and wrapping his arms around Kurt’s neck. Blaine mumbled “I love you, too” about a million times until he pulled away, cupping Kurt’s face in his hands. “Either we fly together, or we don’t fly at all.”

¤¤¤¤¤

They trailed back to the apartment hand in hand, giggling to each other once they reached the door as Blaine pressed Kurt against it, leaning up to kiss his neck. Kurt smiled and pulled away. “Bee, c’mon, we’re not even inside yet.”

“Don’t care, missed you.” The shorter mumbles into his skin, not ready to pull away. “I left the door unlocked, by the way.”

Kurt rolls his eyes and lets his hand fumble around on the door before finding the doorknob and pushing it open, almost tripping over himself as Blaine’s weight falls onto him. They stumble inside and Blaine heads straight for the kitchen. Kurt hears him call his name, and he follows, finding Blaine sitting on top of the kitchen counter playing with the sleeves of Kurt’s hoodie which is far too big for him. He looks up when Kurt enters the room and smiles, gesturing for him to come closer. With one look at his boyfriend’s face, Kurt rolls his eyes playfully and walks over to him, wrapping his arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his lips. “You do remember that this isn’t actually our apartment, right? We’re not doing this in the kitchen.”

Blaine pouts at him, and just as he’s about to open his mouth to say something, Kurt cuts him off, saying, “Have I ever told you how good you look in my clothes.”

“I’m sure you have,” he replies, beaming up at Kurt in between small kisses, “But you don’t say it enough.”

Kurt’s smile falters a bit and he pulls away from Blaine, hoping to get his attention. “Blaine, I never apologized-”

“No, no, no, it’s fine.” Blaine replies frantically, leaning back in, only to be stopped by Kurt’s hand splaying itself across his chest, right over his collarbone and swiping his thumb over his pulsepoint. He makes a noise of disappointment and looks up at Kurt, who’s still taller than Blaine, even when he was on top of the counter. 

“No, Bee, really. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have lied to you about that. It wasn’t fair to you, and I should have just told the truth when you saw the texts the first time. I blocked his number, if that helps, so he won’t be able to try and contact me anymore.” Blaine just smiles at him and shakes his head, leaning in and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“I forgive you, Kurt, I forgave you days ago. Because I love you, and I don’t ever want this to happen again.”

Kurt smiles and pulls Blaine off of the counter so he’s standing on his feet, and wraps his arms around him, tilting down to look him in the eyes. “Why are you always so amazing?”

The shorter beams, leaning into his touch. “I try my best.”

“Enough of that, c’mon.” Kurt says, taking Blaine by the hand, leading him out of the kitchen and into the hall.

Blaine realizes where they’re going and tugs on Kurt’s hand, pulling him back.“Wait, but didn’t Sam and Mercedes say not to-”

“They’ll get over it, they love us.” Kurt kisses him before he can say anything else, not pulling away this time as it deepens, and they stumble down the hall together, pushing the bedroom door open when he tries to press Blaine into it. He brings a hand up to fist in his boyfriend’s hair and they walk backwards together until they’re falling back onto the bed, giggling when Kurt lands on top of Blaine. 

“No, no, you c’mere.” He ushers Kurt further up the bed so he’s sitting against the headboard, letting Blaine crawl forward to straddle his lap, one leg on each side of Kurt’s with his arms back wrapped around his neck.

They both lean forwards until their foreheads are pressed together. Kurt kisses the tip of Blaine’s nose, making him roll his eyes and smile. He leans in as though as he’s going to kiss Blaine, but stops and just says, “Hi.”

The smaller giggles and replies, “Hi to you, too.”

The room is silent for a few minutes while they stare into each other’s eyes, the only sound being heard is their ragged breaths and their blood runs free through their veins. Silent  _ I love you’s  _ blend in the air with the tension of every apology they’ve given each other, and it all disappears when Kurt leans back in, sending sparks flying through the air as Blaine gasps against his lips, letting their hips rock in sync with each other. 

Time passes and they only release for air a few times, deciding that just having each other is enough to keep them alive- and it is enough. After a few minutes- or hours, they couldn’t tell you the difference- Blaine pulls away, looking down at Kurt under him. They’d now slid down the bed, and Kurt ended up lying down on the bed with Blaine leaning over him. He looked down at his boyfriend, who was panting lightly with his face flushed and lips tinted red.  _ He was beautiful. _

Leaning down to kiss him once more, Blaine moves down to his neck, kissing over the spot he was working on back when they were outside of the apartment. When he hears Kurt suck in a shaky breath, he mumbles against his skin, “Tell me that you’re still mine, Kurt, need to hear it.”

“Yours, Bee, always yours. I love you.” Kurt groans under him.

Blaine smiles against his neck and kisses there twice before moving up, right under his jaw. “Again.”

Kurt giggles, leaning to the side to give him better access. “Which part?”

“All of it.”

He smiles and turns toward Blaine, who’s stilled above him, looking down in adoration. Kurt brings a hand up to play with Blaine’s curls and he rolls his eyes when he drops back down to plant kisses all over his face. “ I’m all yours, Blaine Anderson, and I love you.”

In between kisses, Blaine raises an eyebrow and asks, “One more time?” before dropping back down to Kurt’s jaw, nipping where the skin meets his neck, earning a surprised gasp from the boy.

“Yours.” Kurt chokes out, breathless and sated. 

“And I’m yours,” Blaine adds, moving up to kiss the sensitive skin just below his boyfriend’s ear. “And, I love you too, I guess.” He laughs, pulling back a bit, and suddenly he’s being turned on to his back, looking up to find Kurt looming over him.

“You guess?” He asks, with an eyebrow raised. Kurt’s hand trails up dangerously close to Blaine’s neck before moving it up so he was lightly gripping his jaw. He dips his head down and turns Blaine’s head to the side, sucking a lingering kiss over a spot over Blaine’s collarbone, one he knew was sensitive from their previous escapades. When he whimpered below him, he smiled and continued working on spots along the area. 

“You- you know what I m-meant, shut up.” Blaine stutters out, trying to keep his previous composure, but failing and letting his eyes flutter closed.

“I’m not sure I did, honey.” Kurt responds, voice sounding more confident than ever, hooking his thumbs under the bottom of the hoodie Blaine was wearing, letting it drag up slightly before dropping it back down and moving up to get a look at his boyfriend. 

Blaine exhaled shakily and turned his head to the side, opening his eyes again before looking directly into Kurt’s. “Let me show you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is basically one huge cockblock, but I don’t feel comfortable writing mlm smut as a wlw, as I don't think it’s my place to do so. That being said, the title for this chapter can kind of count as a double entendre, because the song itself is about making up after a really bad fight, but the word ‘afterglow’ is usually used to describe that post-orgasmic feeling after sex, so I incorporated both of those into this chapter~ which is where we get makeup sex lol. Anyway, enjoy


	17. Daylight

“You. Kurt Hummel. Are. A. God.” Blaine mumbles into his boyfriend’s neck in between lazy kisses. It had only been a few hours since the reconciliation after the whole debacle, and they decided to spend the entire day in bed, not wanting to leave each other’s loving embrace. Today, Blaine decided to wake Kurt up at 6 am, in love and wanting company. This earned the usual protest and whining, but he got up anyway, willing to do anything Blaine wanted in his fuzzy minded state. 

“I’m a god now? What earns me that title?” Kurt replies, flipping Blaine back onto his side so that they were facing each other again. 

The shorter smiled happily, bringing a hand up to cup his boyfriend’s sharp jawline. “Mmm, you know what.”

“Oh, I don’t think I do.” Kurt quips, leaning in so close that his lips were ghosting right over Blaine’s. “But, I mean, I’m much more of a hands on learner.” He and Blaine stare at each other like that for a while, so close that they’re breathing each other’s hair, without a care in the world. Kurt’s eyes trace down his face, across his jawline and over his naked collarbone, trailing back up until he meets his eyes. With Blaine facing away from the window, the early morning daylight casts a shadow across his body, leaving a striking golden outline where his backside faces the sun. He was gorgeous, he truly was, and Kurt couldn’t imagine anywhere else he’d rather be. 

Catching him by surprise, Blaine leans in, closing the gap between them fully, letting the kiss linger for a moment before he pulls away, giggling to himself. “I just had to do that, sorry.” Before Kurt can lean back in, the shorter stops him, placing a hand on his bare chest and pushing him back. “Enough of that, I’m starving.” He rolled over and pulled himself up, putting his back to Kurt as he reached down to the floor, grabbing a random shirt and throwing it on. Behind him, Blaine can almost feel Kurt staring, so he turns around just before he averts his gaze. “I could tell you were staring, Kurt, I don’t mind.”

The taller boy just grumbles, shoving his face into a pillow and groaning. “Ugh, god, I don’t wanna get up.”

“Then don’t?” Blaine laughs, standing up off of the bed and walking towards the door. “I’ll bring you something, and you can stay in here for as long as you want, deal?” When Kurt gives him a halfhearted thumbs up, he smiles and walks away, down the hall and into the kitchen. He stretches a bit, raising his arms high over his head, before dropping them quickly when he hears a loud noise blaring from the bedroom. Calling out to his boyfriend, he yells, “Is that my phone?”

“No, it’s mine, it’s just Rachel.” Is the response he gets, and he just turns back into the kitchen. 

For a while, Blaine rummages through the fridge and all of the cabinets, looking for something that he could actually cook, before giving up and deciding that it was time to go grocery shopping again, as he’d been putting it off for too long. He trudged back into the bedroom, and dramatically swung the door open to find Kurt looking through the closet, just about to pull out a pair of jeans. “Oh, hey, I was just about to tell you to get dressed. We’re basically out of everything, we need to go to Target again.”

The taller groaned, throwing his head back and rolling his eyes. “But I don’t wanna leave, Bee.” He drags his words on, whining like a child. 

“Too bad, love, you’re coming with me. I mean, unless you’d rather starve.” Blaine quipped, already walking towards the end of the bed and slipping on his shoes. Grabbing the McKinley hoodie off of the chair it was thrown on the night before, he slips it over his head and pats around his pocket, looking for his keys. Then, he realizes that he must have left them on the kitchen counter, so he goes back down the hall, with Kurt right behind him, and finds them sitting there. 

Confused, Kurt tilts his head and pats Blaine's shoulder. “We’re taking your car?”

“Uh, yeah, you said that your car still has the boxes and stuff in it for yesterday, is that fine?”

He nods, but is still a bit unsure. “No, it’s cool, I just don’t think I’ve ever actually seen your car before and something about being in other people’s cars makes me feel all-”

Blaine cuts him off with a short kiss, laughing as he pulls away. “Kurt, honey, it’s not like I’m going to ax murder you or something. We’re just going to Target.” When Kurt nods, he presses a quick kiss to his cheek and then they’re off, out the door as Blaine locks the door behind them.

¤¤¤¤¤

“I will literally never forgive you for not telling me that there was a guitar in the backseat of your car this _entire time._ I mean, why didn’t you bring it into the apartment?”

“Hey, it never came up!” Blaine shoots defensively, throwing his hands up. Right now, they were in the dairy aisle at Target, the store being near empty due to it being so early in the morning. “And besides, it’s not like you ever asked.”

“I shouldn’t have had to ask, Bee. But you are definitely going to play for me as soon as we get back home.” Kurt says behind him, leaning all of his weight on the shopping cart, which was filled with only a carton of eggs and three boxes of cereal that Blaine threw in there when he saw them up front, much to his boyfriend’s dismay.

“Mhmm, whatever you say, love.” Blaine says, turning his attention to the freezer section of the aisle. For a moment, he just stares through the glass door, letting his eyes wander, before turning back around to Kurt, getting an idea. “So, can you maybe bake again tonight? I don’t really care what you make, I’m just tired of eating ice cream by itself all the time, and you’re an amazing cook and-”

“Blaine, slow down. I’ll do it.” Kurt chuckled lowly at his boyfriend, moving the cart around to the side of Blaine. “I’m just gonna make brownies, is that okay with you?” Blaine nodded, pulling a pint of French Vanilla ice cream out of one of the freezers. “Well, c’mon, let’s finish so we can get home already.”

¤¤¤¤¤

“-And the you stormed out of this door-” As they walked through the apartment building, Blaine started jokingly pointing out every place Kurt had gotten angry in, and as it turns out, there had been a lot. Now, as he pushed the front door open, walking into the kitchen carrying his guitar and two grocery bags, he continued. “-Oh, and you’ve angrily walked out of the kitchen countless times. Into the bedroom, or the bathroom, or the living room, or you’d just walk out the do-” Kurt cuts him off by wrapping his arms around the smaller boy's waist, eliciting a small gasp from him as he presses their lips together. Blaine, being startled by the force of it, drops the bags but manages to keep his grip on the instrument, holding it to his side in one hand as he brings the other up to cup Kurt’s jaw. 

“It’s so easy to shut you up like that, oh god. And I get it, Bee,” Kurt says, smiling as he pulls away, “I’ve probably stormed out of every room in this town. But guess what?”

“What?”

“You still have to play your guitar for me.”

Blaine groaned, remembering that he was still holding his instrument in his hand. He looked at Kurt as if to say  _ Do I have to?  _ When Kurt nodded, he rolled his eyes and walked across the room, situating himself on one of the stools at the counter. “Okay, if I do this, you have to put away all of the groceries.” 

“Fine, fine, just hurry up.” The taller rushed out, picking up the bags Blaine dropped on the floor and already putting things away. 

Blaine strummed mindlessly for a bit, before finding a rhythm that Kurt could recognize as Katy Perry. He hummed for a bit, then started singing softly and slow. “ _ Let’s go all the way tonight, no regrets, just love. We can dance until we die, you and I, we’ll be young forever.” _

Kurt, not turning around, speaks to Blaine in mock annoyance. “Are you kidding me.”

Ignoring his boyfriend’s question, Blaine continues. “ _ You make me feel like I live a quaranteenage dream, the way you turn me on,”  _ He laughs a bit when Kurt whips his head around, a huge grin playing on his face “ _ I can’t sleep, let’s run away but stay six feet back at least six feet back.” _

_ “My heart stops when you look at me, just don’t touch and wear a face mask please. Shit is real, so back away and stay six feet back, stay six feet,”  _ At this point, Kurt is staring at Blaine with wide eyes, laughing out loud and looking at him like a crazy person. “ _ Imma get myself healthy with-  _ wait, Kurt, give me a word that could rhyme here.”

The taller thought for a moment, then said, “Well, um friends from glee? I mean, if it fits.”

“ _ Imma get myself healthy with my friends from glee for my quaranteenage dream tonight.”  _ Blaine finishes with an overdramatic flourish, dragging the words on and throwing his arms up when he finished. “I’m pretty sure those were the original lyrics, I may have gotten a few words mixed up, I don’t know.”

“You, Blaine Anderson, are a crazy person.” Kurt turns his attention back to putting away the groceries, still laughing to himself. “And speaking of quarantine, when do you think this whole thing is going to be over? Not that I don’t love being here with you, it’s just been what? Almost four months?”

Blaine nods slowly, then just shrugs. “Let’s just hope it’s soon. As long as we’re both okay, that’s what matters, right? We’ll get out of this together.”

Kurt turns back to him, smiling softly. “Together.”


	18. Paper Rings

“In our bed, guys, are you kidding me?” Sam whisper-yelled across the table booth.

“It's not like you live there anymore, it was three years ago.” Blaine laughed, leaning a bit into Kurt’s side and giggling at the shocked expression on Mercedes’ face. Almost as if time passed by with the blink of an eye, Kurt and Blaine were approaching their three year anniversary- really, it was the next day, and Kurt was trying too hard to not get far too excited about it- and were invited out to dinner by Sam and Mercedes when they came back to visit them in New York. It seemed like as soon as they got out of quarantine, time sped up and made everything in their lives go by faster than they would have wanted, but they wouldn’t change it for anything. Blaine would argue that it had been the best three years of his life, while Kurt would just laugh and say that he couldn’t decide what was the best, since he hadn’t lived out the rest of his days yet, but as long as he was with Blaine, everything was perfect.

Gaping, staring at the couple with wide eyes, Sam turns to his girlfriend, dramatically saying “Can you believe this? I am- I just, what- We slept on that bed when you guys moved back out, man.”

“Sam, honey, inside voice.” Mercedes said, putting a hand on his shoulder, then turning to Kurt and Blaine with a blank expression on her face. “You two are disgusting.”

“Hey, it’s your fault for letting us stay there in the first place.” Kurt shoots back defensively, giggling at Sam, who was pouting in the corner of the booth.

She rolled her eyes at him, then leaned back in her seat. “Touché.”

“Anyway, Sam, Mercedes, when are you guys flying back out to LA? Anytime soon?” Kurt asks, leaning forward to take a sip of his drink.

Her eyes darted to Blaine, then to Sam, then back to Kurt. “Um, I don’t know. Probably in a few days, we have something important to do here before we go back.”

“Oh, something important? Do tell.”

“Uh, no, I will not. It’s confidential, and isn’t your anniversary tomorrow? Worry about yourself, Kurt.” Mercedes says, turning around in her seat and grabbing her coat off of the back of the booth. “But, we do have to get going, we have a big day tomorrow. And, since we invited you, we’ll pay up front. Order whatever else you want, they’ll just charge it to my card.” She moved out of the booth, pulling a still pouting Sam out with her. Kurt and Blaine both stood up with them, pulling them each into a hug as they said their goodbyes. Sam, grumbling about how he’ll never forgive them, pulls Blaine into a hug so tight that it lifts him off of the ground a bit, only putting him down when Mercedes makes him. They watch as the couple leaves, and slide back into the booth, this time sitting across from each other.

“With how crazy they are, I’m almost surprised how much I missed going out with them.” Kurt said, leaning back to look up at the ceiling. It was a beautiful restaurant, a nice Italian place just outside of the East Village, and if you craned your neck up a bit to look above you, there was a golden lined pattern up on the ceiling, with swoops and swirls that Kurt was sure he could trace forever.

After not getting a response, he looks back down to find Blaine staring at him, with one elbow on the table, holding his head up while he looks at Kurt with a lovestruck, dopey smile on his face. “Blaine?”

“Where do you see us in… I don’t know, five years?” The shorter asks, smiling at him, bringing both hands up to clasp them on the table. For a moment, Kurt saw an unreadable expression on his boyfriend’s face, but it disappeared only a second later.

“Well, if it’s in five years, I see it like this- we’re married, and we maybe even have a kid. We’d be living in an actual house, both of our careers have taken off by then, and we’re just as in love as we are now.” He responds honestly. He’s taken a lot of time in the past to think about this, and even when he and Blaine first got together, he was sure that that was where he wanted to end up. “Bee, you’re the one that I want. I know that now, even though part of me thinks that I’ve known that for years.”

Blaine stares at him for a moment, then breaks into a grin filled with childlike wonder, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he laughs a bit. “Oh, I love you, so much. It’s just so crazy to think that around this time three years ago, everything was still so different. You know, the whole cat and mouse for a month or two-”

“Or three.” Kurt broke in with a short laugh.

“Or three,” Blaine repeated, rolling his eyes playfully. “ But with all of the fighting, and crazy exes, it’s just amazing to think about how far we’ve come.”

Kurt puts his hands on top of Blaine’s squeezing them once before looking at him lovingly. “Honey, without all of those- sometimes extremely petty- fights, or the absolutely horrible exes, or the flaws that, if I’m being honest, we both have, we probably wouldn’t be where we are now. So, even with all of the bad, I’m thankful that it led me to the love of my life.”

For a moment they sit in a comfortable silence, just enjoying each other’s presence, mutually feeling the love surrounding them. Blaine breaks the silence with a quiet laugh, looking down at the table before glancing back up, where Kurt is staring at him with a raised eyebrow. “No, it’s just… three whole years, can you believe that?”

The taller nods slowly, taking in his words for a bit as it hits him. _It really has been that long, hasn’t it?_ “It’s almost too good to be true.”

¤¤¤¤¤

“Is the blindfold really necessary, Blaine?”

“Shh, just let me do it, this is your last surprise.”

Kurt huffed as he leaned across the passenger’s seat, giving Blaine a better reach to tie the plain black blindfold around his eyes and behind his head. They were currently in Kurt’s car, and the day was coming to an end, the sun just starting to set. First thing in the morning, Blaine woke him up with breakfast in bed, leaning over him and pressing kisses all across his face, muttering “Happy anniversary” in between each one. They left their apartment a few hours later, after telling Kurt to wear something nice- but not  _ too nice-  _ and stayed out all day, with Blaine making Kurt let him drive and taking him to different places all over the city. Now, sitting in the car, outside of the most expensive restaurant they had even been to, Kurt rolled his eyes almost as soon as Blaine pulled the blindfold out, but soon gave in just to please his boyfriend. 

“Is it tight enough? Like, can you see anything?” Blaine asked when he finished, fiddling with the ends a bit before pulling his arms away hesitantly. 

Kurt nodded, not even bothering to open his eyes beneath the cover. “If it was any tighter, it’d probably cut off my circulation,” Blaine laughed, and he heard the sound of the car starting, then moved his hands to put his seatbelt on. “Where are we going anyway?”

“Do you not understand the concept of a surprise, love?” The shorter quipped, turning to smile at his boyfriend, who was currently trying to mess with the radio. “Here, let me do it.” Blaine said, pushing Kurt’s hand away. He messed with the dial for a bit, before stopping on a basic pop station, letting the sound of music fill the car while they both quietly hummed along. 

The drive was longer than Kurt expected, and he was pretty sure that they went through a tunnel at least once, so he was relieved when the car stopped and Blaine pulled the key out of the ignition. When he went to unbuckle his seatbelt, Blaine told him to hold on, and ran around the side of the car, opening the passenger door and slowly guiding Kurt out. “The sunset is beautiful tonight.” Blaine muttered mindlessly, and Kurt was sure that he wasn’t meant to hear it, but he giggled and replied anyway. 

“Well, usually I’d agree with you, but I don't really have the ability to see right now.” 

Blaine scoffed beside him and put a hand on the small of his back, urging him up onto the sidewalk. Ignoring what he said, Blaine began, “Okay, so you know I love you, right?” When Kurt nodded, he continued. “Well, then do you  _ where  _ I fell in love with you?”

Kurt thinks for a moment, shifting his weight onto one foot. “Of course, it was at Mercedes and Sam’s old apartment…” He ends the sentence slowly, quieting a bit before it hits him. “Oh my god, Blaine, you didn’t.”

Slowly, Blaine reached up and pulled the blindfold off of him, stepping back. “I did, actually.”

“I haven’t been here in so long…” Kurt says, trailing off as he looks up at the apartment building above him, feeling hundreds of memories, good and bad, flooding back to him. Turning to Blaine with a huge smile on his face, he grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, pulling him a bit closer. “Can we maybe go in?”

“Well I wasn’t just going to have you standing out here, silly.” Blaine replies, smirking at his boyfriend before pulling him inside, softly shutting the double doors behind him and looking around. “I had it all cleared with the owners, c’mon.” With Kurt trailing along behind him, he skips over the elevator and heads for the staircase, glancing behind him before pushing the door open. 

“Wait, are we-”

“-Going to the roof, why yes, we are. I told you that the sunset was beautiful, didn’t I?” The shorter replies, grinning from ear to ear at the mazed expression on Kurt’s face. 

“Oh god, I love you so much right now.” Kurt grabs his hand again as they make it up the steps, and with every step, Kurt thinks of the first time Blaine brought him up here. Back then, they were barely even friends, two people pushed into an impossible situation. For him, falling in love was one beautiful accident, but if he hadn’t, Kurt doesn’t know where he’d be, but at this point, he doesn’t even want to know. Happiness was enough without having to think of the what ifs, and now, the bad outcomes seemed so out of reach that he couldn’t care less about figuring out what they were. Kurt had Blaine, and it was enough. 

He’s snapped out of his thoughts when Blaine suddenly stops walking, and looks up to see the door that leads out to the roof. Excitedly, Kurt reaches out to push it open, but Blaine holds an arm out before he has the opportunity. Because he’s a few steps above Kurt was, he leans down, pressing a quick kiss to Kurt’s lips, letting his hand linger on the taller’s shoulder for a bit before he takes a deep breath and moves over. Blaine steps up and swings the door open, revealing a sight that leaves Kurt shocked gasping with wide eyes. 

“Oh my god, Blaine.”


	19. Lover

“Oh my god, Blaine!” Kurt yells excitedly, looking out at all of the faces of his friends peering back at him happily. All gathered up on the rooftop, all of he and Blaine’s friends stood grouped together- Rachel and Finn, Quinn, Santana and Brittany, Tina and Mike, and Sam and Mercedes. Behind them, Kurt saw a grand piano, huge and white with a microphone attached to the top, in the middle of the rooftop. Chairs and tables were scattered around, making Kurt wonder how long they had been up here. He turned to Blaine with wide questioning eyes and his boyfriend just shrugged playfully, urging him forward.

Kurt steps out and is instantly crowded into a hug by Finn and Rachel, and Finn hugs him tight. “Hey, dude, I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“Well maybe if you called more.” Kurt quips, slapping him on the arm playfully. “When did you guys even get here? I mean, who planned this?”

Behind him, Mike pipes up, walking closer. “Blaine did, he set this whole thing up. Mercedes knows the owner of the building, so she called and cleared this all. And, your crazy ass boyfriend made me and Sam learn how to disassemble and reassemble a grand piano for this, but it was worth it.”

Gaping, Kurt turns his head to look at Sam, who just shrugs and smiles, and then he turns back to Finn and Rachel, striking up a conversation about how they were doing in Ohio after Rachel decided to take a break on her Broadway career. Everything carries on smoothly, and Kurt only then realizes how much he missed most of his friends being all together. It had been so long since they were all in one place, and it reminded him of the good days in high school, sitting in the choir room and singing their hearts out. Only this time, he was so much happier, and something in him knew it was going to last. 

Kurt had just started a conversation with Mercedes and Rachel about getting together for a trip like they used to in high school, when he heard someone clear their voice behind him. He turned around to see Blaine, sitting on the piano stool as he gathered everyone’s attention. Kurt smiled, watching his boyfriend command the room until everyone was watching, and then listened as he spoke carefully. “So how’s everyone doing tonight?” This earned loud cheers from his friends, and Kurt giggled. 

“Thank you all for coming out tonight. I know a lot of you guys had to fly out here for this, so I’m really grateful that you all took the time to join us for such an important night.” Blaine smiled wide and looked directly at Kurt, before averting his gaze back to the piano keys.  _ Important night? What was that supposed to mean? _

Kurt looked at him expectantly as he continued. “So, first, I want to sing a song that I’ve always held very close to my heart. And no, it’s not Teenage Dream, I’ve made you all sit through that enough times. But, this song is something that I listen to whenever I’m overwhelmed with the sheer force of my love for my amazing boyfriend, and I always have to tell him how much he means to me in case he… well, you’ll get it in a moment.”

There’s an eerie silence as Blaine gets himself situated with the keys, and Kurt sucks in a breath when he recognizes the first few notes. 

“ _ You put all your faith in my dreams, you gave me the world that I wanted, what did I do to deserve it?”  _ Kurt smiles sweetly at him, and giggles when Blaine winks back.

“ _ I follow your steps with my feet, I walk on the road that you started, I need you to know that I heard you, every word.”  _ It’s a beautiful song, it truly is, but Kurt hadn’t heard it in months. On nights when he couldn’t get to sleep, Blaine would crawl into bed with him, singing softly while they rocked back and forth until Kurt drifted off. He held it in his heart dearly.

_ “I’ve waited way too long to say everything you mean to me.”  _ Being in love was always such a foreign feeling to Kurt. With Adam, he felt like it was a responsibility, like it was something required of him and he never wanted to let anyone down. But with Blaine, and even with all of their setbacks all those years ago, everything came natural. He let Kurt move at his own pace and was always there by his side. 

_ “In case you don’t live forever let me tell you now, I love you more than you’ll ever wrap your head around. In case you don’t love forever, let me tell you the truth, I’m everything that I am because of you.” _ Kurt thought back to last night, when they were out at dinner for their anniversary. When Blaine told him how thankful he was for their relationship and for Kurt giving him so many chances at becoming better, he was overcome with pride and love.

_ “I’ve carried this song in my mind, listen, it’s echoing in me, but I haven’t helped you to hear it.” _

_ “We’ve only got so much time, I’m pretty sure it would kill me if you didn’t know that pieces of me are pieces of you. I’ve waited way too long to say everything you mean to me.”  _ He watched as Blaine lost himself in the song. He was always so expressive when he was singing, and hearing him now made it feel like they were the only two people on earth.

_ “In case you don’t live forever let me tell you now, I love you more than you’ll ever wrap your head around. In case you don’t love forever, let me tell you the truth, I’m everything that I am because of you.”  _ Beside him, Mercedes took his hand and squeezed once, and Kurt turned to her and smiled.

_ “I have a hero whenever I need one, I just look up to you and I see one, I’m a man cause you taught me to be one.”  _ Then, Rachel took his other hand, pressing it between both of hers. Kurt felt so overwhelmingly loved at the moment, and the song Blaine was currently performing amplified everything by a hundred. 

_ “In case you don’t live forever let me tell you now, I love you more than you’ll ever wrap your head around. In case you don’t love forever, let me tell you the truth, I’m everything that I am...”  _ Blaine turned to Kurt, almost bouncing up out of his stool. Kurt could only wonder how someone so tiny and compact could always be filled with so much energy. The shorter turned back, focusing all of his concentration on his hands and the piano keys as he came to the end of the song.

_ “In case you don’t live forever let me tell you the truth”  _ Blaine got up from the piano stool and turned to Kurt, still singing. He walked over to where Kurt stood with Mercedes and Rachel, who stepped back once Blaine got close enough. He took his boyfriend’s hands in his as he sang the last line, making eye contact so intense that Kurt’s heart stopped. “ _ As long as I’m here as I am, so are you.” _

Kurt smiled nervously and squeezed Blaine’s hands. “Bee?”

Not addressing Kurt, Blaine turned towards all of their friends, who were gathered near the piano. “I fell in love with this man, right up here on this rooftop. I found my craziness and my sanity with him- my missing puzzle piece. All he had to do was give me a second chance- well, two- and I was head-over-heels. And everyone who knows me knows that I don’t fall in love very easily, but I think that my soul knew something that my body and my mind didn’t know yet.” He turns back to Kurt and smiles sweetly. “It knew that our hands were meant to hold each other, fearlessly and forever. Which is why it’s never felt like I’ve been getting to know you, it’s always felt like I was remembering you from something. As if in every lifetime that you and I have ever lived, we’ve chosen to come back and find each other, and fall in love all over again. Over and over, for all eternity. And I just feel so lucky that I’ve found you so soon in this lifetime, because all I want to do- all I’ve  _ ever  _ wanted to do, is spend my life loving you.”

Kurt wasn’t sure when he started crying, but only when he heard Rachel sniffle behind him as Finn tried to hush her, he noticed the tears streaming down his cheeks. He turns to Sam, who looks like he’s also on the verge of tears, and just about loses it.  _ Oh my god, this is really happening, isn’t it? _

Blaine cups Kurt’s cheek and wipes the tears away with his thumb, cooing softly. “My love, no tears, please. There’s no reason to cry.” He nods frantically and sniffles, trying his hardest not to break down again when Sam steps up to Blaine, reaching in his pocket and pulling out a small black box to hand to his best friend. Blaine takes it, and even before it registers that Blaine is getting down on one knee, he sees Tina and Mike both crying silently to the side of him. 

Blaine smiles as his own eyes start to well up, and he opens the box to reveal a simple, silver band with an infinity symbol engraved into the side. “Kurt Hummel, my amazing friend, my one true love, will you marry me?”

Kurt scans the rooftop once again, looking out at all of the faces of the people he loves so dearly, before landing on Mercedes, who is clinging onto Sam’s arm with a loving smile on her face. She nods at him once, and he turns back to Blaine, who is peering up at him expectantly. He nods twice, slow at first, then frantically, “Yeah… yeah.”

Blaine giggles as he fumbles with the ring, and after he manages to slide it onto Kurt’s ring finger, he jumps up and kisses him as applause erupts around them. When they pull apart, Mike is pulling Kurt into a hug just as Finn picks Blaine up and throws him over his shoulder, shouting, “Yes! I have another tiny brother now! I love you, man.”. He drops Blaine into Sam’s arms, making the shorter grumble in loving annoyance due to the fact that his friends can just carry him around like that.

“I’m proud of you, dude,” Sam says, patting him on the back. “I always knew that you two were perfect for each other.”

Blaine looks to the other side of the rooftop, where Kurt is being engulfed in a hug by Santana and Brittany, and smiles. “Yeah, we are.”

¤¤¤¤¤

“Blaine Anderson, do you take Kurt Hummel to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect him, forsaking all others, and holding only unto him forevermore?”

They chose to have the ceremony in a  _ literal  _ field, and Blaine let Kurt pick out the specific venue. The one they decided to use was a celebration hall, complete with an entire ballroom inside of the actual building, while the grassy field they stood on was just outside. The day was beautiful, and it only added to the wonder of the situation. 

Blaine nodded, letting a highly contagious smile grow on his face. “I do, oh god, I do.”

“And, Kurt Hummel, do you take Blaine Anderson to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect him, forsaking all others, and holding only unto hi-”

“I do, I do, Dad, get on with it.” Kurt said, not breaking his attention away from his soon-to-be husband to look at his father, who had practically begged him to let him officiate he and Blaine’s wedding. 

Burt rolls his eyes at his son and says, “You may now exchange rings.”

Behind them, Mercedes and Sam step up, holding out wedding bands to their friends. They each take their respective rings, and turn back to each other. “Now, Blaine, please place the ring on Kurt’s hand and repeat after me.”

Blaine takes Kurt's left hand in his right, shaking with anticipation as he slides the ring on his finger. Burt clears his throat and says, “As a sign of my love, that I have chosen you above all else,”

Blaine laughs nervously and repeats, “As a sign of my love, that I have chosen you above all else.”

“With this ring, I thee wed.”

“With this ring, I thee wed.” Blaine brought a hand up to swipe away a tear that he saw fall down across Kurt’s cheek, not bothering to wipe away his own eyes. Sitting right in the front row, he saw his brother, Cooper, point at him and wink, and he rolled his eyes. 

“And, Kurt, please place the ring on Blaine’s hand and repeat after me.” Burt says after taking a huge breath, overcome with how proud he was of his son.

Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and easily slides the ring on his finger, noticeably less nervous than his fiance was. It’s not that he wasn’t nervous, but that feeling of anxiety was shadowed by his urgent want to rush this ceremony so he could be Blaine’s  _ husband.  _

“As a sign of my love, that I have chosen you above all else,” 

Taking a shaky breath, he repeats, “As a sign of my love, that I have chosen you above all else,”

“With this ring, I thee wed.”

Kurt takes a moment to look over Blaine, a wave of adoration hitting him as he finds Blaine frantically wiping his tears away, squinting his eyes to shield them from the harsh sunlight. “With this ring, I thee wed.”

Burt clears his throat again, straightening his posture and fixing his tie. “To make your marriage work will take love. It will take trust to know that in your hearts, you truly want what’s best for each other. It will take dedication and loyalty to stay close to one another while still allowing room to grow as you move together, without knowing what the future will hold. And it will take commitment to hold true to the journey that you both have pledged here today.”

With a soft laugh, Blaine nods, smiling wide at Kurt. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Looking at the loving couple with pride, Burt announces, “Well then, by the power invested in me by a really sketchy website, it is my absolute honor to declare these two young men married. Go forth and love each other, live each day to the fullest, and show this god forsaken world that this is a love for the ages. You may now kiss-”

He’s cut off by Kurt surging forward, having to lean down to kiss his  _ husband.  _ Blaine leans up a bit, diving in deeper, and applause erupts around them, earning loud whoops and cheers from their guests. When they pull back, they keep their foreheads pressed against each other, and whisper “I love you so much” to each other, somehow in perfect sync. Behind Kurt, Santana clears her throat, signalling for them to rush the process so they could get to the next part. He nods to her, and she turns to the crowd, grabbing everyone’s attention. 

‘’Okay, I know we usually save this until a bit later, but if everyone could please stand up and follow us inside, that would be great.” All of the guests obliged, all filing inside as the newlyweds led the way, stopping to give them quick congratulations.

Once they were all situated in their seats, both Blaine and Kurt stood up, heading for opposite ends of the dance floor. Quinn, who flied out to New York with Santana and Brittany, stood up, along with Santana, and then joined together in the middle of the dance floor, each holding a microphone. 

Quinn spoke first, after waving at her friends in the crowd. “So, everyone, a little while ago, Kurt and Blaine told us about a song that was the start of something beautiful for them, and they asked us to sing it today- for their first dance and husbands.”

Santana raised the microphone to her mouth and turned to Blaine. “Blainey here told me that our voices would fit this song best, so we spent all week perfecting it,” She turned back to address the crowd. “So enjoy it, if you will.” Together, they stepped back, off of the dance floor so that Kurt and Blaine could join in the middle. 

When the first notes started wafting out through the speakers, Kurt took his husband's hand and placed another on his waist, pulling him a bit closer. “Hi.”

Blaine looked up at him and smiled. “Hi.”

**_We can leave the Christmas lights up ‘til January, this is our place, we make the rules. And there’s a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear. Have I known you twenty seconds, or twenty years?_ **

As Quinn sang the first lyrics, they began to move slowly, side to side. Kurt pressed his lips to Blaine’s cheek, and then moved so he could whisper in his ear. “Do you remember the first time we danced to this song?”

**_Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close, forever and ever? Take me out and take me home. You’re my, my, my, my lover._ **

Breathing softly against Kurt’s neck, the shorter laughed, recalling the incident. “Yeah, it was in Mercedes and Sam’s old apartment. Back when we were quarantined together. Ugh, you hated me.”

Santana started the next verse, and Kurt tightened his grip on his husband. 

**_We can let our friends crash in the living room, this is our place, we make the call. And I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you. I’ve loved you three summers now, honey, but I want ‘em all._ **

“I didn’t  _ hate  _ you, Bee, you know that. It was… rough, but I can never even remember what that felt like.” Kurt reassured, running his hand lightly along Blaine’s back. 

The shorter man sighed. “I know, I know, it’s just how I remember it sometimes.”

“Well you shouldn’t, especially not now. We’re married now, Bee, can you believe that?” Kurt pulls back to look at his face, and sees that his eyes are shining with fresh tears. 

Both girls join in on the next chorus, harmonizing beautifully.

**_Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close, forever and ever? Take me out, and take me home. You’re my, my, my, my lover._ **

“Oh, god, I love you so much, Kurt.” Blaine chokes out, leaning in to press a kiss to Kurt’s lips before pulling him close, into a tight embrace. 

“I know, honey, I love you, too.”

**_Ladies and gentleman, will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand, I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover._ **

After swaying in silence for a while, Blaine giggles against Kurt’s neck, laughing even harder when he asks what he’s thinking about. “Oh, nothing, I’m just remembering that day in the kitchen. You know, I knew how you felt about me before you said anything. Sam and Tina told me that morning, that’s why I made you dance with me.”

Kurt pulls back to look at him with wide eyes, utterly stunned. “Wait, you- how did you… Sam and Tina? How did they know.”

“Mercedes told them.”

The taller man scans the room before meeting Mercedes’ eyes, and he huffs when she blows a kiss at him and smiles. “Oh god, I should have known.”

**_My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue. All’s well that ends well to end up with you. Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover._ **

Blaine hums against him and shakes his head. “They’re the reason we’re here today, let them live until the reception’s over, at least.”

“Fine, but only because I love you.”

**_And you’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for me, and at every table, I’ll save you a seat, lover._ **

Kurt looks down at his husband, who’s lazily resting his head on his chest as they slowly move back and forth to the music. He turns his head, and his eyes catch on Finn and Cooper, who are jokingly holding hands and dabbing faux tears away, mimicking the two boys on the dance floor. Kurt rolls his eyes and taps Blaine, telling him to look. “Who the hell let them sit next to each other?”

“Does it matter at this point? Just let me love you.” Blaine says dismissively, turning back to Kurt and smiling up at him. 

“You’re so lucky that I love you, Blaine.Anderson.”

**_Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close, forever and ever? Take me out, and take me home. You’re my, my, my, my…_ **

He leans up and presses a teasing kiss to Kurt lips, muttering, “That’s not my name anymore, remember?”

“Fine,” Kurt says in mock annoyance. “You’re so lucky that I love you,  _ Blaine Anderson-Hummel.” _

He smiles at this, seeming satisfied. “And I love you,  _ Kurt Hummel-Anderson.” _

“Do you think it’s weird that our last names don’t match? I mean, it might confuse people-”

**_Oh, you’re my, my, my, my…_ **

Blaine cuts him off with another kiss. “Let them be confused. Who cares? All that matters is that I’m yours, and you’re mine, forever and always. It’ll all end well, I know it will.”

**_Darling, you’re my, my, my, my lover._ **

Kurt smiles. “All’s well that ends well, Bee.”


	20. Music Used In This Book

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im literally going to sob this book is actually over omg

**Music Used In AWTEW (in order of mention):**

I Forgot That You Existed- Taylor Swift (song)

The Man- Taylor Swift (song)

You Need To Calm Down (song)

Soon You'll Get Better- Taylor Swift (song)

Lover- Taylor Swift (album)

1989- Taylor Swift (album)

Kid Krow- Conan Gray (album)

Sing To Me Instead- Ben Platt (album)

Teenage Dream- Katy Perry (album)

I Wish You Would- Taylor Swift (song)

Teenage Dream- Katy Perry (song)

Grow As We Go- Ben Platt (song)

Honest Man- Ben Platt (song)

Cruel Summer- Taylor Swift (song)

Blank Space- Taylor Swift (song)

ME!- Taylor Swift (song)

Baby, It's Cold Outside- Darren Criss & Chris Colfer (song)

I Think He Knows- Taylor Swift (song)

Lover- Taylor Swift (song)

Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince- Taylor Swift (song)

Wish You Were Sober- Conan Gray (song)

False God- Taylor Swift (song)

London Boy- Taylor Swift (song)

The Archer- Taylor Swift (song)

Death By A Thousand Cuts- Taylor Swift (song)

Cornelia Street- Taylor Swift (song)

Afterglow- Taylor Swift (song)

Daylight- Taylor Swift (song)

Quaranteenage Dream- Darren Criss (song)

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**_A/N: wow, guys. it hasnt even been a month since i got the idea for this book and now its over. time goes by so fast when youre doing something you love. thank you all, so so so much, for reading this, its been quite a journey, and im so grateful for everyone who took the time to read, vote, and comment. it means the world to me, thank you._ **

**_-sapphicsinner_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like seriously it was so fun to write this, im so sad now that its over. i have many many more story ideas, but that was really the end


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